In the new movie "Lucy" actress Scarlett Johansson plays a dim-witted party girl who receives a mysterious drug that allows her to dramatically increase the power of her brain.

Oregonian reporter and editor Susannah L. Bodman, writing about the movie July 25, shot an arrow through the movie's underlying use, through the voice of Morgan Freemen, of the supposedly science-based notion that humans use only 10 percent of their brains.

In her blog ('Lucy' film trailer trots out tired old 10-percent myth about brain usage) Bodman calls that idea "a whole lot of bunk" and turned to a couple of scientists in the Pacific Northwest, including UO psychologist Michael Posner, a noted neuroscientist, to support her argument.

—By Jim Barlow, Public Affairs Communications