Einstein’s Brain Was Stolen and Chopped Up Into Tiny Pieces...For Science?!

Key Takeaways

on April 18 1955 the father of relativity Albert Einstein died of a burst a Horta and was taken to a mortuary in Princeton New Jersey Einstein's wish was to be cremated but the pathologist on duty thought it a shame to destroy such a celebrated brain so without permission he picked up a saw and cut nine Stein's cranium open extracting his brain oh and he also grabbed his eyeballs dr. Harvey then plopped everything into a couple of jars and promptly alerted the New York Times not surprisingly the family was furious but Harvey eventually convinced them his actions were all in the name of science the jar of eyes was given to Einsteins eye dr. Henry Abrams who placed them in a safe-deposit box which is rumored to be somewhere in New York City the brain however went on a far wider journey [Music] after cutting the brain into two hundred and forty blocks he was able to make a thousand slides out of different portions of Albert Einstein's brain box them up and sent them to researchers around the world although Harvey stole the brain in the name of science promising to publish important research in the four decades that followed he never did but the slides that Harvey sent to qualified brain researchers around the world they did reveal some interesting things about Einstein's brain even though Einstein's IQ was way higher than most the size of his brain was actually smaller than the average male more significantly though Einsteins inferior parietal region was about 15% larger than average it's not to be part of the brain that helps with language and mathematics another anatomical difference is that he was lacking a crevice in brain called the Sylvian fissure also his brain did not show any significant signs of aging it was lacking a substance called lipo fussing which is an auto fluorescent brown yellow pigment that's not very well understood what we do know is that it accumulates in the human body with age and yet at 76 years old Einstein's brain was almost completely void of it but none of these facts could be considered a huge breakthrough in understanding Einsteins genius so eventually the hubbub died down and for the most part the famous brain was forgotten dr. Harvey moved the slides but then the remainder of the brain was kept in a jar in a cider box under a beautiful river for a long time and then it was kept in a closet for many years decades later dr. Harvey donated it back to Princeton hospital in New Jersey as for the 1000 slides what happened to them there were five boxes of slides created of Einstein's brains we know that one set of slides is at the National Museum of Health and medicine at the motor museum we have 46 the rest of the slides are ma there's no doubt that what Harvey did wasn't exactly ethical and probably not in the name of science but hopefully with modern technology and our developing knowledge of the human brain secrets about Einstein's brain may finally be revealed and its long journey from an Ivy League hospital to a beer cooler won't be for nothing thanks for watching focal point if you're still wondering about Einstein's eyeballs in the 90s there was this rumor that Michael Jackson wanted to buy them for five million dollars but dr. Henry Abrams quickly denied that they were for sale as far as we can tell they're still in a safety deposit box somewhere for more please subscribe to the channel or if you want to see these episodes as they're released head over to our Facebook watch page the link is down in the description [Music]