Brain injury gives woman new interests!

A FORMER Colorado rancher, Leigh Erceg who lost all memories of her life with a 2009 traumatic brain injury but build up new interests in art, poetry and high-level math which lifelong friends said was out of character for the former NASCAR fan with a degree in physical education.

Doctors said Erceg was found to have “acquired savant syndrome,” enhanced cognitive abilities in fields such as art and math that weren’t previously present, and synesthesia, a condition that causes her senses to overlap — she can see sounds and hear colours!

“Leigh is the only woman in the world who has acquired savant syndrome and synesthesia following brain injury that I know of,” said Dr Berit Brogaard, a neuroscientist studying traumatic brain injury.

Erceg considers herself lucky and says, “I’m one of those people who’s gotten lucky, I think of it as a growing thing that made me stronger.”

The giant sponge floating in space

THIS is Saturn’s outer moons, measuring 255 by 161 miles (410 by 260km).

Named Hyperion, the moon’s porous surface can be seen in incredible detail in this image taken by Cassini as it performed a flyby of the satellite.

Hyperion is shaped like a potato and is one of the largest bodies in the Solar System known to be so irregular. Its almost ‘bubbly’ appearance can be attributed to it having a very low density for its size, according to Nasa. This low density also means that it is composed largely of water ice with only a small amount of rock.

Because of these properties, the entire moon is porous, like a sponge, with well-preserved craters of various sizes packed together across its surface.

Hyperion unleashed a burst of charged particles towards the spacecraft, that is a giant 200-volt electric shock! It appears that Hyperion’s surface becomes electrostatically charged as it is bathed in charged particles.