Brains
If I had my brains /
I’d share some of them with you. /
I’ll keep an eye out.
.
.
#haiku #poem #poetry #poet #writer #writing #brain #eye #illustration #share #phrases #rare #humor #davidebooker #october #halloween #102018
Tag Archives: brains
Haiku and photo: “Brains”
Brains
If I had my brains /
I’d share some of them with you. /
I’ll keep an eye out.
.
.
#haiku #poem #poetry #poet #writer #writing #brain #eye #illustration #share #phrases #rare #humor #davidebooker #october #halloween #102018
Filed under 2018, haiku, Uncategorized
Saturday update: “‘Breakneck speed'”
[Editor’s note: below is a follow up article to the one posted in this blog on Thursday: https://talltalestogo.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/haiku-to-you-thursday-brain-drain/.]
UT: Missing brains were destroyed
By Benjamin Wermund | December 3, 2014
The bizarre mystery of the University of Texas at Austin’s missing brains came to a swift end Wednesday, as officials revealed that the preserved organs had been destroyed more than a decade ago. But some questions remain.
One hundred brains, kept in formaldehyde-filled jars, were reported missing this week from the state’s premier research university. About 200 brains dating from the 1950s, which originally belonged to patients at the Austin State Hospital, were given to UT for research in the 1980s.
About half of them briefly went unaccounted for and officials spent Tuesday and Wednesday scrambling to find them. A preliminary university investigation found that UT environmental health and safety officials disposed of multiple brain specimens in 2002 in accordance with protocols concerning biological waste.
But questions remain — including why the brains were destroyed — and the university said it would appoint an investigative committee to get answers.
“As researchers and teachers, we understand the potential scientific value of all of our holdings and take our roles as stewards of them very seriously,” UT officials said in a statement. “The university will also investigate how the decision was made to dispose of some of these specimens and how all brain specimens have been handled since the university received its collection from the Austin State Hospital in the 1980s.”
The brains were in poor condition when the university received them in the 1980s and were not suitable for research or teaching, the university said in a statement. Workers disposed of between 40 and 60 jars, some of which contained multiple human brains, the statement said.
Despite reports that the missing brains included that of Charles Whitman, the sniper who went on a shooting spree from the UT Tower in 1966, UT officials said they had no evidence that Whitman’s brain had been destroyed with the others. Other reports Wednesday that the brains had been given to UT campuses in San Antonio also appeared to be false, UT said. The university will continue to investigate both claims, however.
“We’re moving at breakneck [Editor’s note: An interesting word choice considering speed to figure this all out,” UT spokesman Gary Susswein said Wednesday. “We obviously take this very seriously.”
Author Alex Hannaford discovered the brains had gone missing while reporting for his book, “Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital.” Hannaford detailed the mystery in an article for the Atlantic, published Tuesday.
Timothy Schallert, a neuroscientist at UT and curator of the university’s collection of preserved brains, told Hannaford that by the mid-1990s, about 200 of the organs, sealed in jars, were taking up much-needed space at UT’s Animal Resources Center. Jerry Fineg, the center’s then-director, asked Schallert if he would move half of the jars elsewhere.
Eventually, Schallert discovered about half of the brains had gone missing. “I never found out exactly what happened—whether they were just given away, sold or whatever—but they just disappeared,” he told Hannaford.
Hannaford said Wednesday that UT still has a lot of questions to answer. He questioned whether 100 brains could possibly fit into the 40 to 60 jars UT says it destroyed.
“It leaves the question, are there some that are unaccounted for?” he said, adding that it was “pretty obvious that Whitman’s brain was part of the collection.”
Coleman de Chenar, a pathologist at the Austin State Hospital in the 1960s, conducted the autopsy on Whitman, who had left a note for police, urging physicians to examine his brain for signs of mental illness. Whitman’s brain reportedly ended up in the collection of specimens then housed at the hospital that was later given to UT, Hannaford said.
“As far as I’m concerned, it leaves some sort of open ended questions,” Hannaford said.
Haiku to you Thursday: “Brain drain”
Faculty perplexed. /
One hundred human brains gone! /
Deemed a thoughtless heist.
******
The above poem was inspired by an actual event. Details below.
******
100 Human Brains Mysteriously Disappear From Texas Campus
by Jay Strubberg
5:02 AM, Dec 3, 2014
http://sharing.knoxnews.com/sharescnn/photo/2014/12/03/1417599389_10332419_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
Where did they go? About 100 jars containing preserved human brains have disappeared from The University of Texas at Austin, and no one knows where they went.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Austin State Hospital transferred a collection of 200 formaldehyde-soaked brains to UT about 28 years ago, but half the lot has up and vanished with little clues as to where they might be.
One UT professor told the outlet, “We think somebody may have taken the brains, but we don’t know at all for sure.”
Of the missing brains, one belongs to Charles Whitman, who went on a sniper rampage at UT in 1966 and killed 16 people, in what is considered one of the deadliest campus shootings in the past fifty years. (Video via Discovery Channel)
“When Charles Whitman was shot they found a note and in that note he asked that his brain be left to science and looked by the pathologist to find out if there was something wrong with him.”
And NPR also says that pathologist turned out to be the same guy “who put the collection together in the first place.” Still, knowing that doesn’t really leave a lot of clues for the Sherlock Holmes wannabes out there. But the story gets more intriguing.
According to a 1986 Houston Chronicle report cited in The Atlantic, there was a bit of a tug-of-war for the collection between UT, Harvard and other colleges in what was labeled “the battle for the brains” — we kid you not.
Aside from that clue, the brains whereabouts are pretty much anyone’s guess at this point, though there’s certainly plenty of creative ideas out there floating through social media on where they might be.
Filed under Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
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