Company Man - S1-E17
Continuity mistake: When Claire gets killed she is wearing reddish brown boots, with her jeans tucked into them. She's still wearing them when her body is placed on the bed. A few moments later, running from the house with her mother, she's wearing sneakers.
Company Man - S1-E17
Continuity mistake: At the end of this episode, Noah is having a flashback. It shows Claire helping him pick out his new glasses. In this scene, Noah first tells Claire that she is adopted. However, in the episode "One Giant Leap", Claire tells Brody Mitchell that her parents told her that she was adopted when she was really little. In "Company Man" she is around 14 or 15 years of age in the flashback.
Chosen answer: It's not been made 100% clear. It was originally assumed that he actually consumed part of the brain, but this has turned out not to be the case. Sylar has been shown all along to have an instinctive knowledge of how things work and how to fix them - this is his actual original power and the ability that made him an exceptional watchmaker and repairer. It appears that he uses a similar process when acquiring new powers - he exposes the brain of the target, allowing him to examine it and determine how their power functions. He can then apply that knowledge to his own brain, allowing him to replicate the ability in question.
Tailkinker ★