On May 9, 2026, at 10:14 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 750 airplane was involved in an accident at Page Field in Fort Myers, Florida. The first officer reported that on a previous flight in the accident airplane, the crew had received multiple alerting system messages which the captain reported to maintenance. Then, as they took off during the accident flight, the same messages repeatedly occurred. The captain instructed the first officer to pull the audio warning circuit breaker once cruise altitude was reached so as to prevent further warnings, which were presumed to be false. During final approach to the Fort Myers airport, the first officer was flying the aircraft, and the captain began the before-landing checklist. However, he was interrupted by the air traffic controller who issued landing clearance and this distraction led him to forget to go back and complete the list. A vital item on that checklist was to lower the landing gear, and as confirmed by surveillance footage from the airport, the airplane approached the runway with the landing gear in the retracted position. Unaware of that fact, the pilots allowed the aircraft to touch down, resulting in a crash landing. Neither the captain nor the first officer were injured, but the plane was badly damaged and the captain’s memory lapse could easily have resulted in a deadly explosion and fire.

The abstract of an article found here states that “studies indicate that heart transplant recipients may exhibit preferences, emotions, and memories resembling those of the donors, suggesting a form of memory storage within the transplanted organ. Mechanisms proposed for this memory transfer include cellular memory, epigenetic modifications, and energetic interactions. Moreover, the heart’s intricate neural network, often referred to as the ‘heart brain,’ communicates bidirectionally with the brain and other organs, supporting the concept of heart-brain connection and its role in memory and personality.” The article is a nice example of dramatic research results that can serve a target for critical thinking about memory mechanisms as well as about research design and methodology.