You’ve heard the stories: somebody in Texas is about to take a bite out of his burrito when he realizes that the face of Elvis is looking up at him from the wrinkly surface of the dough. This actually happens a lot. From religious figures to Princess Di, famous folks pop up in warped glass, oil stains, tree trunks…you name it. It’s safe to assume that Elvis isn’t really in anyone’s burrito. A fascinating scientific question, then, is: why do people think he is? Science writer Michael Shermer has a hypothesis. For human beings, the ability to recognize pattern is paramount. After all, nature does have patterns in it, and those of our ancestors who were successful at spotting them lived longer, and left more descendants. They did this by being right more often than they were wrong.