Scientific American has an interesting article [gruesome surgery image warning!] on anatomical hemispherectomies – a surgical procedure that essentially removes half of a patient’s brain for the purpose of curing severe seizures. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, many of the patients function perfectly well after the procedure, which highlights the adaptability of the brain as a system. If you’ve read Blindsight by Peter Watts, you’ll find this fascinating; if you haven’t read this Hugo-nominated masterpiece of hard science fiction, I guess you should set about downloading the free version to find out what you’re missing out on.