Princeton, New Jersey, April 18, 1955: Albert Einstein died in a hospital bed. The physicist suffered an aortic aneurysm that killed him. He was 76 years old.
An attending nurse heard his barely audible final words. But he spoke them in his native tongue, and she didn’t understand German. Whatever Einstein uttered with his last breath was lost.
Not long thereafter, so was his brain.
As per Albert Einstein’s wishes, his body was cremated the same day of his autopsy and his ashes were spread in a secret location (believed to be the Delaware River) to avoid having his burial spot turned into a shrine.
Einstein also asked that his brain be kept and studied for scientific purposes, although that claim was unclear.
Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy and discovered the fatal aneurysm, surgically removed all of Einstein’s gray matter.
Then he kept it.
Dr. Harvey’s intention was to lead a study of the brain, even though he had no expertise in the field. The Einstein family took umbrage but agreed so long as he agreed to no publicity. Everything was kept quiet.
Decades passed. No studies were published, not even preliminary reports. No one gave a second thought to Einstein’s brain.
1978: Enter the author Steven Levy, best known as a regular contributor to both Newsweek and Wired. But in his early days he wrote for little-known New Jersey Monthly magazine. He was given an assignment: find out what had ever become of Einstein’s brain.
Nearly a quarter of century had passed since the great man’s death, however, so the Princeton Hospital had no records of the Einstein autopsy. Dr. Thomas Harvey hadn’t worked there since 1960.
Levy tracked him down at a medical lab in Wichita, Kansas.
The doctor explained that back in 1955 he offered samples of Einstein’s brain to numerous experts in neurology, which was not Harvey’s medical field. He carted the brain to the University of Pennsylvania for study. Some of the gray matter was sliced thin for viewing under microscopes; other pieces were cut into chunks for greater examination.
Levy asked if any of the brain still existed. With reluctance, Dr. Harvey then turned to a cluttered area of his office and pulled out a cardboard box with no top. Newspapers had been used as padding around a Mason jar filled with fluid. Floating in it were portions of Albert Einstein’s brain. Beside that was another jar that also contained some gray matter.
Not in a controlled environment, not on ice. For many years, the legendary man’s brain had been inside glass jars in a cardboard box on the floor in an office in Wichita, Kansas.
Levy asked why no findings had ever been published. Harvey said it was because of the basic results: Einstein’s brain showed few differences from any other elderly man.
Dr. Harvey wasn’t permitted to tell Levy anything more, as per his orders from the Einstein estate.
1985: The report was finally released. Despite what Harvey said about its normalcy, researchers learned abnormalities about Einstein’s cerebrum. First, his contained more glial cells, which feed neurons. Second, he had a slightly larger parietal lobe, which is vital for sensory perception. These factors might have contributed to his genius, although that’s hard to say.
Dr. Harvey initially enjoyed the modicum of fame he received but eventually found the attention unflattering. He returned the brain to Princeton Hospital in 1998. He died in 2007.
Parts of Einstein’s brain now reside on display in the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.
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