Sometimes we get letters here at Moment of Science asking whether psychics are for real. Well, despite the t.v. shows, there isn’t any scientific evidence that psychic powers, such as mind-reading, actually exist. That doesn’t prove they don’t exist–just that, so far, there’s no reason to think they do.

Still, the famous scientist and popular writer Isaac Asimov made an interesting observation about mind-reading once. Many people across the centuries have claimed they could read other people’s minds. If this is true, Asimov points out, then mind-reading would be a fact of nature. It would be one of things that the human brain can do, just like dreaming or maintaining your body temperature. That would mean that mind-reading would have to be the result of evolution.