Scientists successfully completed a brain transplant on a monkey!
A brain transplant is one procedure that most people assume is simply impossible. Yet in the 1970’s scientists successfully attached one monkey’s head on the body of another! In the 1960’s Cleveland brain surgeon Robert J. White took a dog with two brains and attached one of them onto the neck of another dog. He first isolated the brain and then attached it to the blood vessels on the other’s neck.
Through this procedure they learned that the brain is an “immunologically sound” organ, meaning it can be transplanted without a body likely rejecting it like a kidney. They then moved to monkeys. In the 70’s White took a severed monkey’s head and, through the same process as the dog, attached it to the body of another monkey. When the newly “formed” monkey woke up it first attempted to bite off the finger of the nearest doctor, at which everyone in the room began to applaud. Scientists had just performed the first successful brain transplant!
They hoped to attempt the procedure on humans, but it was too controversial and crossed a major ethics boundary. Since then, the procedure has been largely forgotten, mentioned more in entertainment as science fiction than actual science. Do you think scientists should attempt a human brain transplant? Tell us in the comments!
The Office of Technology Assessment, or OTA, was an office of the U.S. Congress from 1972 until 1995. Its sole purpose was to provide Congressional members and committees with objectives and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues of the 20th century. Its model was widely copied around the world. The OTA was a leader in practicing and encouraging delivery of public services in innovative and inexpensive ways. They even began distributing government documents through electronic publishing. The office was closed down after a book called “Fat City” by Donald Lambro in 1980 came out. It called the OTA an unnecessary agency that just duplicated work done by other agencies elsewhere. It was abolished, technically “un-funded”, that left 143 people out of a job and freed up $21.9 million of funding. September of 1995 was when the agency officially closed, but many congressmen were against it closing. To this day, there are some scientists that call for the OTA to be reinstated.
So this one is two facts for the price of one. Today, all throughout fiction and especially in video games, it’s very common to see maps with drawings of ships or sea monsters on the side. 
If you've ever wondered why bats hang upside down, here's the answer for you. The bodies of bats are designed in so that their weight keeps their feet closed. When they cling and hang upside down, the bat's weight will pull on the tendons that keep their feet closed. This means that they don't have to put much effort when they're hanging. Gravity does all the work for them!
The Voyager Golden Records were phonograph records which were placed in the Voyager spacecrafts launched in 1977. The purpose of the records was to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, designated for any intelligent life in the universe who might find them. 
