So Sylar eats people's brains to acquire their abilities, I was wondering if this would actually happen in real life? If someone had a special ability and you ate their brain would you pick it up? I don't understand how the genes would get from the digestive system into the brain, and it seems like he'd have to actually splice his genes with theirs to get their abilities. But if he did that, wouldn't he also acquire all their other attributes, like natural height / intelligence / etc?

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this, without immediately shooting it down

I thought he just take a look at the brains.
Does he really EAT them??? If he eat them, couldn't someone without abilities get some by eating brains???

Anyway... I don't thik this could happen in real life.

I always thought he started without abilities and his "see how things work" was just something he could do, like being naturally smart

So even if he did start out with the power to see how things work, it doesn't mean he can do anything he wants, so any method he has of stealing powers would have to work for anyone, not just him, right?

Where was it confirmed that he ate "part of the brain"?

I looked up and down Heroes Wiki and nothing seems confirmed. In fact, it is said that the intention was for him to eat it, but they instead decided to just leave it ambiguous.

He eats them. Go here : http://sylareatsbrains.com/

ah nice link!
interesting theory that one.

I don't buy that he eats them. Too silly. It kinda made sense, back when the character was supposed to be some religious nut, but when they rewrote the character with a more logical bent, that ended.

Cholestrol levels do not lie.

Where exactly has it been confirmed? The only place I've seen it 'confirmed' was a really old interview with Bryan Fuller from before the character really took shape and every other interview since then where it was brought up (which has been a lot) they've just been purposefully wishy-washy about it, making a point to NOT confirm it. The original plan was certainly for him to eat them, as has been said numerous times, but they've also said a lot that the plan changed when they realized how cheesy that sounded.

www.sylareatsbrains.com Has a lot of good proof.

I still like the site. Have you seen the gif?

You got a link?

He has to have Intuitive Aptitude to get Candices ability, so that means that he doesn't have Illusion. That's good to know.

As many have already said, intuitive aptitude may not be an ability. I don't think it is.

You should try it and tell us if you got any powers. Just kidding. That'll be weird if it could happen in real life. I doubt it.

How would it be possible, without powers, to do what Sylar can normally do? A Human being can look at another being and "see what's wrong with them"? So that he can "fix them"? A Human being can glance at a clock and know it's two seconds behind? That person should be in the Guiness Book of World Records then...

In Season One Molly says (of Sylar) something like "He can see into your soul, then he eats your brain". Chandra Suresh said that if there was such a thing as a soul it would be in the brain, so this could be what Molly understood of the situation, Sylar is literally looking at their brains, and therefore their soul.

When Sylar kills people, his hands are always covered in blood afterwards, but there's never any blood round his mouth is there?

According to a major spoiler I read, Sylar does not eat brains. The first hour of the Season 3 premiere has been screened exclusively for a few sites, and all have included the same thing in their reports:

Sylar corners Claire, and manages to cut her head open. Due to her whole not dying thing, she not only stays alive but awake for the whole thing. Seeing Sylar get to work on her brain, she asks:
"Are you going to eat it?" to which he replies, "Claire, that's disgusting."

Sounds to me like the writers changed their minds

Would be kind of nasty to see him eat them..

Sylar doesnt eat brains.

http://nanopolis.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/...-doesnt-brains/

Yep, from 3x01 The Second Coming, it's confirmed that Sylar doesn't need to eat brains to acquire powers. It's still possible that eating brains is one method he could use to acquire powers, but if you can get a power just by poking around in someone's head for a while, then why would you eat their brain? of course, this is Sylar

apparently once he finds that part of the brain that deals with 'powers', he can then touch it and infuse the genetic information of that power into his own DNA

Yeah, even though it's still possible that Gabriel eats brains, as far as HEROES goes, that scene with Claire means he definitely does not eat brains. This is wrapped up! lol, see www.sylareatsbrains.com It's ridiculous! Clutching at straws springs to mind...