Einstein’s Brain by Mohan Ashtakala

 

Dr. Thomas Harvey with Einstein's Brain

Albert Einstein was born on April 14, 1879, Ulm, Germany, one-hundred-and-forty-three years ago. Since the time he gained fame for his works, his genius aroused much curiosity. Some of his peculiar thought processes became well known. He found difficulty speaking as a child, concerning his parents to such an extent that they consulted a speech doctor. Later, Einstein revealed that he thought in pictures, not in language. He famously imagined riding a beam of light; the experience perhaps foreshadowing his theories on the behavior of light.

He suffered from dyslexia, and found himself unable to socialize with schoolmates. He preferred playing by himself, working on puzzles and building complex structures with blocks. In later years, music had a way of unlocking secrets. When confronted with a difficult physics problem Einstein would pick up his violin, and then suddenly stop and shout, “I’ve got it,” as the answer entered his mind.

The combination of his eccentric childhood and his later notoriety gave birth to much interest and speculation with respect to his brain. Was Einstein’s brain different from those of normal men? Did it explain his genius?

The opportunity to study this came in April 18, 1955, when Einstein passed away. He wanted to be cremated and his ashes spread over the sea, as he did not want his presumptive grave to become idolized. However, during the autopsy, Dr. Thomas Harvey, of Princeton, removed the brain and preserved it. It does not seem that this was done with permission, despite the fact that Hans Albert, Einstein’s elder son, endorsed the move only after the event occurred.

Harvey took the brain to the University of Pennsylvania, and dissected it into several pieces, some of which was supplied to leading scientists. The rest, he kept to himself, hoping to find support for research, but for many years, no such opportunity arose, and it travelled with him to the many places he subsequently lived. In 1978, journalist Steven Levy found the brain, preserved in alcohol, in two mason jars in a cider box. They had been sitting there for over twenty years.

Finally, in the 1980’s, research on portions of the brain were conducted by Berkeley professor Marian Diamond. Sadly, or fortunately, as the case may be, Einstein’s brain proved not to be anything special. The only peculiarity was a small increase in “glial” cells in the left interior cortex, but not so significant as to explain the man’s genius.

Mohan Ashtakala (www.mohanauthor.com) is the author of The Yoga Zapper, a fantasy, and Karma Nation, a literary romance. He is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com)