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Einstein’s brain

by Gyanvitaranam

  Ever since Albert Einstein was recognised as a super genius, his brain has been a subject of much research and speculation. Einstein’s brain was removed within seven-and-ahalf hours of his death. The observed regularities or irregularities in the brain have been exploited to float various ideas about correlations in neuroanatomy with general or mathematical intelligence.

  Einstein’s autopsy was conducted in the lab of Thomas Stoltz Harvey. Shortly after Einstein’s death in 1955, Harvey removed and weighed the brain at 1230gms. Harvey then transferred the brain to a lab at the University of Pennsylvania where he dissected it into several pieces. He retained some of the pieces to himself while others were passed on to leading pathologists with the hope that cytoarchitecture, the study of brain cells under a microscope, would reveal useful information. Harvey injected 50 per cent formalin through the internal carotid arteries and afterward....

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