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EINSTEIN’S BRAIN
Because of Albert Einstein’s renowned genius, his brain became a coveted object for research after he died.
Within hours of Einstein's death on April 18, 1955, an autopsy was performed on him by a doctor who actually removed and kept his brain.
Although Einstein’s son was initially furious, he did later agree that the doctor, Thomas Harvey, could give the brain to researchers who wanted to discover whether the physicist’s genius came from a brain that was physically different.
Born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, Albert Einstein left behind a remarkable legacy that redefined the study of physics.
Einstein was respected all over the world for his genius, and it was theorized that his brain might actually be different from the average human brain. So, when he died at age 76, in Princeton Hospital, his brain was immediately removed from his body by Dr. Harvey, without prior permission and on his own authority.
Harvey likely figured that the organ could help his own medical reputation.
Not only did Harvey steal Albert Einstein’s brain, but he also removed the physicist’s eyes, which he then gave to Einstein’s ophthalmologist.
The rest of Einstein’s body was cremated in Trenton, New Jersey, on April 20, at which time his son, Hans Albert Einstein, learned what Dr. Harvey had done. But he eventually agreed that the brain could be studied on the condition that those studies be published in important scientific journals.
So, Harvey meticulously documented and photographed the brain. He weighed it (1,230 grams), finding it lighter than average for men of Einstein’s age.
He then cut the brain into 240 sections which he also photographed.
Harvey insisted that his goal in doing so was purely scientific, and again without previous consultation, he drove the brain cross-country supposedly to give samples to curious researchers. The United States Army did receive samples from him, but no professional studies of them were published for thirty years.
Finally, Harvey’s unsupervised and continuing obsession with Albert Einstein’s brain cost him his position at Princeton, his medical license, and even his marriage.
Harvey moved to Wichita, Kansas, where a journalist was shocked, in 1978, to find that Harvey was still preserving some of Einstein’s brain under a beer cooler.
Eventually, the first study of Einstein’s brain was published in 1985.
Appearing in Experimental Neurology journal, this study of Einstein’s poor, mistreated brain revealed that it did indeed appear physically different from the average brain.
The genius reportedly had an above-average number of glial cells, which keep the neurons in a brain operating efficiently.
Another study from the University of Alabama in 1996 asserted that Einstein’s neurons were more tightly packed than usual, possibly causing faster information processing.
Three years later, a study of Harvey’s photos found that Einstein’s inferior parietal lobe was wider than average, perhaps making him a more visual thinker than most.
And more recently, a 2012 study claimed that Einstein’s brain featured an extra ridge in its mid-frontal lobe, an area associated with planning and memory.
Ultimately, the debate over the specifics of Einstein’s brain is unlikely to end any time soon. Most of his brain was finally returned to Princeton Hospital.
Tissue slides of that famous organ, though, were donated to medical institutions. Before his death in 2007, former-doctor Harvey donated some to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Philadelphia, where they may still be seen.
They say that when you are really rich or famous, everyone wants a piece of you. A very good literal example of that has to be poor Einstein’s brain!
SOURCE: allthatsinteresting.com
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