Baby.
Phineas Gage (1823-1860) is one of the earliest documented cases of severe brain injury.
On 13th September, 1848, 25-year-old Gage and his crew were working on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. Gage was preparing for an explosion by compacting a bore with explosive powder using a tamping iron. While he was doing this, a spark from the tamping iron ignited the powder, causing the iron to be propelled at high speed straight through Gage’s skull. It entered under the left cheek bone and exited through the top of the head, and was later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident.Afterwards, his crew found the iron bar “smeared with blood and brain” and weighing more than 6kg. Remarkably, Gage was conscious and able to walk within minutes of the accident.
Gage is the index case of an individual who suffered major personality changes after brain trauma. As such, he is a legend in the annals of neurology, which is largely based on the study of brain-damaged patients.
Black Holes’ Fast-Moving Gas Clouds May Stifle Star Formation
Newfound clouds of gas that stream from gigantic black holes may dictate the pace of star formation in the galaxies around them and the growth of the black holes themselves, according to a new study.
These outflows of gas appear to feed on matter that would otherwise fall into an expanding supermassive black hole, halting its growth. As they travel outward, the clouds may also sweep away the raw materials that form new stars in a vast, roughly spherical area known as the galaxy’s bulge, slowing the pace of star formation in the process.
“They have the potential to play a major role in transmitting feedback effects from a black hole into the galaxy at large,” study leader Francesco Tombesi, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.
Most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, are thought to contain supermassive black holes lurking in their centers.
