Subliminal perception has long been a hot topic. The idea that something (generally an image) could appear and disappear before us so quickly that it escapes conscious perception, and yet affect us ...

BBC R&D were approached last year by Radio 4 documentary producer Phil Tinline to help with a documentary he was putting together surrounding the myths and truths of subliminal advertising in video.

Recently, I holed up indoors with my family watching old sci fi movies, including The Puppet Masters, a story about alien blobs that sit on people's backs and wire themselves into human nervous ...