Background
When Einstein died, his brain was removed seven hours after his death. It has been stated that the regions of his brain that supported numerical processing was different from the other brains.
According to Wikipedia “ The brain has attracted attention because of Einstein's reputation for being one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century, and apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to support various ideas about correlations in neuroanatomy with general or mathematical intelligence.” This post contends the above argument.
Real Story
When Einstein died in 1955, his autopsy was conducted by Thomas Harvey, a pathologist at Princeton Hospital. He was alone in the room while conducting the autopsy. For some strange reason he removed Einstein’s brain and kept it in his lunch box. He took the brain to his home. When asked to return it, he blatantly refused. He was threatened with dismissal from Princeton. Even this could not change in mind. Nevertheless, he was dismissed from Princeton although he got a lot of media attention. He promised to unveil the mysteries in the brain. He, however, forgot that he was a pathologist and not a neurologist. At that point neurology was not even developed.
He used to keep the mind on his kitchen table and cut it with his knife. He used to observe it with his microscope. It may be stated at this point that under a normal microscope the mind of a genius and that of a dump person would look exactly same.
It is said that Harvey dissected the brain in 240 parts. He used to keep the parts in 11.4% formalin. It took him a while to realize the fact that he has chewed more than he could digest. his life was not the same after that. His wife left him, he faced financial crunch. Ultimately in late 90’s he returned the brain. He died in 2007.
When researches were conducted on the brain the neurologists found that the number of”glial” cells was more in his brain.
Problems with the results
The following points need to considered
· Harvey kept the brain in his lunch box when he removed it. There could have been bacteria in the lunch box.
· He used to keep the brain in mason jars filled with alcohol, that too in his kitchen.
· The researches were carried out many years after the brain was removed.
· The argument that Einstein had more glial cells that any other person suggest that the number of such cells have been noted for all the persons whose autopsy had been conducted.
Conclusion
It seems to me that the scientists made up their mind and were looking for something different in his brain and that too so many years after his death. The reason for Einstein’s intelligence could have been the structure of his neurons or any other.
