New research reveals how a week in the dark rewires brain cell networks and changes hearing sensitivity in adult mice long after the optimal window for auditory learning has passed. With further study, cross-modal learning — the manipulation of one sense to induce change in another sense — could be used to help people with disabilities. For example, temporary sight deprivation might be used to help deaf and hearing-impaired people adapt to cochlear implants and hearing aids. (1)

Spend a week in darkness. And you will hearing will improve.

Spend a week in total silence. And your eyes will sharpen.

Spend a week in total lack of touch stimuli. And you will reach out to the cosmos.

Spend a week dead. And you will for the first time know what life is…

Review our original premises.

And through the lens of craziness, you may discover logic.

Yes, you can sense the cosmos.

But take a good look.

A lifeless telescope can sense much more than you…