Crazy Friday Science: Man Hit in Skull During Robbery, Now He Can Draw Fractals by Hand

I always thought that ray diagrams from old books about optics and reflectors were so fractally beautiful, which is why this post relates for me.  What I mean is below, from an old text that I still use to explain reflectors:

This is a story about a guy who had to overcome some pretty stupid and mean business to discover that his brain was able to recreate fractals that were mathematically accurate – when he draws them by hand.

Yeah.

Meet the work of Mr. Jason Padgett, a mathematical savant.  It's just three minutes, you have the time.  Sorry it's a Fox News clip, at least it's a local station:

This guy took a blow to the back of the skull which damaged his brain.  This damage caused the brain to compensate in such a way that gave Jason Padgett the ability to literally "see" math.  I mean, neurons are essentially firing light anyway, now Jason's mind can interpret the synesthesia he's experiencing.  That's like being able to instantly and accurately interpret dreams.  How amazing is that?!  Someone grab this guy and start having him revolutionize battery storage and solar generation efficiency!

Check out some of Jason's work, all obviously copyright Jason Padgett.  This stuff is gonna blow your mind – at least that's my hope for this Crazy Friday Science post!

This first image is awesome – it's Jason's representation of a double-slit refraction test:

You need to go see more of these at the original post at NeuroBonkers, and then you need to go over and check out even more of Jason's work at Jason's art site.