The New Yorker has a fascinating article up about the itch, what it is and attempts by medicine to understand how it works. Throughout the article is the story of a woman named M. who, after a long series of misfortunes, develops an itch that she cannot rid herself of. An itch that proves costly:

“Scratching is one of the sweetest gratifications of nature, and as ready at hand as any,” Montaigne wrote. “But repentance follows too annoyingly close at its heels.” For M., certainly, it did: the itching was so torturous, and the area so numb, that her scratching began to go through the skin. At a later office visit, her doctor found a silver-dollar-size patch of scalp where skin had been replaced by scab. M. tried bandaging her head, wearing caps to bed. But her fingernails would always find a way to her flesh, especially while she slept.

One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain.

I find it maddening enough to have a mosquito bite that refuses to be tamed by the dull ends of my fingers; an itch of such epic proportions that it compels me to erode a hole in my skull is well beyond my ken.

The Itch [The New Yorker] : Thanks, Wytu!

A duo of lamps by Swedish designer Alexander Lervik for fans of the central nervous system. The brain lamp was created from a scan of the designer’s brain.

Lights [Lervik Design] : Gizmodo

Ectomo wishes you and yours the very best on this joyous Christmas Day. We hope that while opening your presents you keep in mind the true spirit of the holiday and remember the story of little baby Santa Claus, born to a traveling encyclopedia salesman, Joe, and his wife, Mary, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the pool shed behind the Holiday Inn Express, for the hotel was sold out and yea, it was indeed Joe’s fault for truly he traveled much and should have known better.

But lo, in the morning did three housekeepers, made to work but getting time and a half, bring them gifts of towels and shampoo and soap and let them bathe in the employee bathroom and were, perhaps, slightly aghast and confused as to why Mary decided to give birth in a pool shed instead of going to the hospital but they did not pry for it was, indeed, none of their business and they had rooms to turn down. So rejoice ye Ectomites! Rejoice, for Santa is born, so that one day he may die for your sins and, on the third day and on that day for every year after, rise from the dead delivering gifts while continuing to quell his eternal hunger for brains. Merry Christmas!

I love abandoned places…especially abandoned scientific establishments. You’d be amazed at the stuff that people will just leave behind. In Russia, the government literally left behind an entire neurological laboratory full of monkey brains in jars, half-mummified rat heads, and assorted other blocky, thrown-together Russian electronics. This place is like a candy store for zombies and medicophiles like myself.

The next time I’m in Russia (which would, technically, be the first I will have ever been in Russia), I plan to bust into this joint and abscond with a number of preserved brains and Frankensteinian Russki computer equipment. All part of my longterm plan to turn my house into an authenthic Mad Scientist’s Laboratory.

Abandoned laboratory of studying a human brain [Brushnicka.com]

I am constantly reminded of just how difficult a woman’s life is. I am well versed in the entire catalog of Harrowing Tales of Female Oppression. My other has so well indoctrinated in me the canon of Vaginal Unfairness that she no longer even has to keep my testicles in a jar. I am well trained and, therefore, can be trusted with them. With that in mind, I submit this article from a January, 1937 issue of Modern Mechanix entitled “Proving Women Also Have Ideas”.

“Queen of women inventors is Miss Beulah Louise Henry of New York, above. She has earned the title of ‘Lady Edison’ with 43 patents in the past decade for inventions ranging from dolls to sewing machines. One of her most unusual products is a snap-on parasol which permits a woman to have an umbrella to match each frock. She also has devised many things for the aid of office workers.”

Woe to you, the naysayers! Here, now, is irrefutable proof! Had you any doubts, the accomplishments of Miss Henry will surely have laid them to rest.

Proving Women Also Have Ideas [Modern Mechanix]

A brain was found in a bag near a Virginia apartment complex Tuesday morning, but it was not clear if it was human or animal, police said.

It was discovered next to a suburban apartment complex under construction and near a mall, Richmond [Virginia] police spokeswoman Karla Peters said.

The state medical examiner was examining the brain, she said. It was not clear how long it had been there.

“We’re waiting for the medical examiner to determine how we should proceed,” Peters said.

Looks like some scientist at DARPA isn’t going to be able to finish his trial run at uploading a human cortex into a computer today.

Funny thing is…this happened just down the street from where my buddy Adam lives. I wonder if it’s his.

Brain found in bag near Va. apartments [USAToday.com] (Thanks, Alex and Adam!)

Shelley Batts is the sultry scientific minx over at Retrospectacle, a neuroscience blog. And she needs Ectomo’s help to win a scholarship.

Full disclosure: I have a bit of a crush on Shelley. Not only does she possess a luscious pair of ripe, jiggling brain melons (like the ones you might see if you peeled back the scalp of a virgin angel), but she has the most entertaining neuroscience blog on the Internet and an African Grey.

Now, neuroscience isn’t usually my thing: I’m a trepanation kind of guy myself. But Retrospectacle is a must-read for any Ectomite. Here’s an example of the kind of posts Shelley does over there:

• Science Vault: Monkey to Human Testicle Transplant

• Science Vault: How Much LSD Does It Take to Kill an Elephant

• Science Vault: Coffee As Treatment For the Plague

In short, Shelley deserves your adoration. Which brings me to my point: Shelley is now competing for a $10,000 scholarship to be given to the best academic blogger on the web. She’s got 1006 votes so far, which is pretty good.

Unfortunately, she’s still being soundly beaten by the loathsome and evil Jess Kim.

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