Clip of the Week

I'm on the move today (back up in Boston with the family for the holidays), so I won't be posting as regularly as usual. But I do have a Clip of the Week this week, which comes from this past Sunday's 60 Minutes. It's about "superior autobiographical memory"--the rare ability to remember details about every single day of one's life--and it's absolutely wild (a little long--but I promise, it's worth it).

I'll post a quick excerpt from the online story as a teaser, and then link to the video.

There has been a discovery in the field of memory recently, so new you won't find it in any textbook. It's so hard to fathom, there are some who remain unconvinced. 

For the moment, the scientists studying it are simply calling it "superior autobiographical memory." And unless you happen to know one of the handful of people discovered so far who have it, get ready to be amazed. 

Louise Owen is 37 years old and a professional violinist living in New York City. But she has another gift too, one that is far more rare. 

When correspondent Lesley Stahl mentioned a date, Jan. 2, 1990, Owen told her, "Right now, I'm remembering the jogging class that I started that morning." "And you're actually back there?" Stahl asked. 

"I can feel it. I can remember the coach saying, 'Keep going,'" Owen remembered. 

That was more than 20 years ago, when she was 16, a date Stahl picked completely at random.

That's crazy. There's a bunch of other characters in the video with similar gifts, and it's worth a watch. I've always been fascinated by the seemingly limitless potential of our brains, and the rare glimpses of that potential that people like these afford. It's pretty interesting to see them get together and share their experiences.

As usual, 60 Minutes videos don't work properly when I try to embed them, so click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.