This musician died in 2021 but his brain is still making music

From Futurism: "An art installation project in Australia, titled "Revivification," has performed a quasi-resurrection of the late experimental American composer Alvin Lucier, creating a sort of brain that continuously composes music on the fly with its errant electrical signals. At the center of the piece is an "in-vitro brain," grown from blood that Lucier, who passed away in 2021, donated in the final years of his life. Housed in a plinth, it's grown on top of an electrode mesh that connects it to twenty large brass plates placed around the room. Visitors can listen as the brain fires off electrical pulses that trigger a transducer and a mallet behind each plate, striking them to produce sound. To create the "mini-brain," researchers at Harvard Medical School used Lucier's white blood cells to derive stem cells, the foundational building blocks of the body which possess the ability to develop into any type of cell or tissue, such as that belonging to a particular organ. For the project, the team chose to program the stem cells to grow into cerebral organoids, resembling the cells of a developing human brain."

In 1945 a B-52 bomber flew crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State building

From Damn Interesting: "On a Saturday morning in July of 1945, Army Air Corps bomber pilot Lt. Colonel William Smith was trying to fly his B-25 bomber through a steadily increasing fog. He was on his way to Newark airport to pick up his commanding officer. Municipal tower reported extremely poor visibility over New York, and urged him to land, but Lt. Colonel Smith requested and received clearance from the military to continue his flight. Partway through their flight, the pilot quickly became disoriented because he was unable to see the ground below, and he lost his way. Despite Manhattan regulations that forbade aircraft from flying below 2,000 feet, Smith made the decision to drop below 1,000 feet in an attempt to untangle his bomber from the densest part of the fog. When the Empire State Building emerged from the fog right ahead of his craft, Smith banked his plane and pulled back as hard as he was able, but the bomber lacked the maneuverability to dodge the large tower looming over it. At 9:49 a.m, the ten-ton B-25 slammed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building."

A study found that this common painkiller can lead to risk-taking behavior

From Science Alert: "The most commonly taken analgesic worldwide – and one of the most consumed drugs in the US – could be doing a lot more than just pain relief. Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol and sold widely under the brand names Tylenol and Panadol, may also increase risk-taking, according to research from 2020 that measured changes in people's behavior when under the influence of the medication. "Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don't feel as scared," explained neuroscientist Baldwin Way from The Ohio State University when the findings were published. The findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that acetaminophen's effects on pain reduction also extend to various psychological processes, lowering people's receptivity to hurt feelings, reducing empathy, and even blunting cognitive functions."

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius turned a human brain into glass

From Reuters: "Scientists examining the remains of a man who died in bed in the ancient city of Herculaneum after Italy's Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD found dark fragments resembling obsidian inside his skull. It turns out the eruption had somehow turned his brain into glass.It is the only case on record of such a phenomenon, and researchers now have answers for why and how it happened. They say the vitrification - transformation into glass - of this victim's brain was the apparent effect of a scorching ash cloud that suddenly descended upon his city along the Bay of Naples, instantly killing all the inhabitants.They concluded vitrification took place through a unique process of rapid exposure of the brain's organic material to a very high temperature - at least 510 degrees Celsius (950°F) - and its subsequent rapid cooling.The researchers conducted an extensive analysis that confirmed the glass nature of the fragments."

Butt plugs were originally marketed in the early 1900s as medical devices

From Get Maude: "The first proper butt plugs complete with flanged ends were marketed as medical devices. “Dr. Young’s Ideal Rectal Dilators” originated in the early 1900s and are immediately recognizable to modern eyes (and still occasionally change hands as collectors’ items). They came complete with a laundry list of ailments they were said to treat: headaches, insomnia, bad breath, acne, anemia, anorexia, hemorrhoids, nervousness, irritability, and cold extremities. Dr. Young also claimed his dilators could cure insanity, making the extremely bold claim that “three-fourths of all the howling maniacs of the world” could be cured. Unfortunately for Young, a lawsuit brought about by the Food and Drug Administration put an end to his rear-based medical shenanigans. The FDA ruled—not entirely insensibly—that his claims were not backed up by any evidence, regardless of how much of his Piloment people were using. The company was dissolved, and all stock was destroyed."

The incredible size of the Elephant Ear plant

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com