Trivia: The artwork created by character Isaac Mendez is actually done by Tim Sales, a comic book artist who is actually color blind. He does all his work in black and white and has other people insert the color.
Trivia: There are a number of other Star Trek references in Heroes. In episode 15 (Run!), Hope refers to Hiro as "Sulu." George Takei, who played the original Sulu plays Hiro's father. And at one point (and several other times throughout the show) Hiro gives the Vulcan hand symbol that Spock always used when he would say "live long and prosper." Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar, would also later play Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek.
Trivia: Masi Oka (Hiro), who has an IQ of 180, appeared on the August 31, 1987 cover of "Time Magazine" for an article called "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids". Masi, who was 12 years old at the time, is the boy on the left of the cover which can be seen here: http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1987/1101870831_400.jpg.
Trivia: Ashley Crow & Matthew John Armstrong, who play Sandra Bennett & Ted Sprague, are actually a married couple. He had to hold a gun to her in the show, which Matthew described as, "something he hopes his son never sees".
Trivia: www.primatechpaper.com was an actual website for the front company in the show. It also directs you to a phone number, 1-800-PRIMA16, which was also a working number about the front company, although no longer valid.
Trivia: Cristine Rose, who plays Angela Petrelli, is only 14 years older than Adrian Pasdar, who plays her son Nathan.
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 ★