After completing an intelligence test devised by Imperial College London and the BBC, 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons did not distinguish themselves from results previously gathered from more than 18,000 public respondents. Neurosurgeons had "quicker problem-solving speed but slower memory recall compared with the general population" in what The Guardian characterizes as the only "significant difference," but a look at the paper (published online in the British Medical Journal) shows that the engineers are at least better at mental manipulation of data.
When each group's scores for the six domains were compared with those in the general population, only two differences were significant: the neurosurgeons' problem solving speed was quicker (mean z score 0.24, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 0.41) and their memory recall speed was slower (−0.19, −0.34 to −0.04).
Glad you could make it, Lionel.