Sunday, October 19, 2008

Bluegrass on the Brain

The nexus of science and art exists in the head of Eddie Adcock. Literally. This Virginia native made his career as a banjoist in Nashville,TN, but during recent years tremors in his right hand and arm prevented him from strummin' and pickin' the way he used to. Surgeons at Vanderbilt University have since stepped in and helped him with that. During brain surgery Eddie was pickin' away as surgeons placed an electric generator with electrodes into the left hemisphere of Eddie's brain. Through a hole they drilled in his head they wiggled the electrodes around until his pickin' improved. This story is a secular miracle brought to the world through the scientific method. A miracle does not have to involve blind faith. It can be a perfectly explainable event with a wonderfully successful outcome. May this symbiosis of art and science crescendo into a modern Renaissance. Stories like these make me think that non-fiction today is better than any science-fiction ever written.

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