Einstein's Brain Unlocks Some Mysteries Of The Mind

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: June 1, 2010 12:16:03 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Einstein's Brain Unlocks Some Mysteries Of The Mind

Einstein's Brain Unlocks Some Mysteries Of The Mind
by JON HAMILTON
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126229305>

In the 55 years since Albert Einstein's death, many scientists have tried to figure out what made him so smart.

But no one tried harder than a pathologist named Thomas Harvey, who lost his job and his reputation in a quest to 
unlock the secrets of Einstein's genius. Harvey never found the answer. But through an unlikely sequence of events, his 
search helped transform our understanding of how the brain works.

In The Name Of Science

How that happened is a bizarre story that involves a dead genius, a stolen brain, a rogue scientist and a crazy idea 
that turned out not to be so crazy.

The genius, Einstein, died April 18, 1955 at Princeton Hospital in Princeton, N.J. Within hours, the quiet town was 
swarming with reporters and scientific luminaries, and people who simply wanted to be near the great man one last time, 
says Michael Paterniti, a writer who did a lot of research on the events of that day.

"It was like the death of the prophet," Paterniti says. "And so it got a little bit crazy."

Things got especially crazy for Thomas Harvey, who performed the autopsy on Einstein. During the procedure, he removed 
the brain to examine it, which is routine.

But instead of placing the brain back in the skull, Harvey put it in a jar of formaldehyde, Paterniti says.

"And out of that complete, sort of melee of the moment, he made off with the brain, and it was under somewhat dubious 
circumstances," Paterniti says.

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