ACCIDENTAL MEDICINE

Medical breakthroughs discovered by accident. This week: Brain scans AFTER German psychiatrist Dr Hans Berger fell off a horse in 1892, he became convinced of the existence of telepathy. While trying to prove this, he instead discovered electroencephalography (EEG) — the recording of brainwaves.

Dr Berger was in the cavalry when his horse threw him. He survived, but his sister, at home many miles away, felt he was in danger and insisted their father telegram him. Dr Berger believed his distress had been communicated telepathically. He studied medicine in the hope of discovering a physical basis of ‘psychic energy’ in the brain. In 1924, by tinkering with electronics, he recorded the first human electroencephalogram (EEG). He met only mockery and disbelief. The significance of his discovery only began to be appreciated ten years later, after British electrophysiologists confirmed his findings. Nowadays, EEG is used by doctors for everything from studying how the brain stores memories, to probing whether people in persistent comas are in fact conscious.