There are hundreds or even thousands of scientists who have done revolutionary work in the history of world science, but we, as a people, do not know almost any of these people. Except for Albert Einstein. Thanks to his work in the field of physics, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics by engraving his name in the world of science with gold letters, and at the same time, he was recognized by the whole world for his extraordinary character.
Of course, it ended up in the ground. However, someone who wanted to study the intelligence of this genius did not want that brain to be mixed with the ground and said that it was stolen. In fact, it was the expert who did Einstein’s autopsy. However, things didn’t go so well for him afterwards. Let’s take a closer look at the story of Albert Einstein’s stolen brain and see if this genius brain was really different from ours.
Let’s get to know Albert Einstein briefly:
Born on March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is a theoretical physicist who has done important work in the fields of physics and mathematics. We all know him for his theory of relativity and the formula E=mc². Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, after his work inspired the whole world and shaped today’s scientific world. Death was not yet the end for Einstein’s brain, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Has Albert Einstein been brainwashed?
- Thomas Harvey who autopsied Einstein
When Albert Einstein died at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey, USA, on-call pathologist Thomas Harvey stepped in to perform his autopsy. After standard procedures, Harvey had a revelation; In front of him stood the smartest person in the world, he couldn’t just bury his brain in the ground. Harvey said he took Einstein’s brain without his family’s permission.
You can’t steal the brains of one of the smartest people in the world and run away, a few days later the story came to light and what Thomas Harvey did was exposed. He pleaded with Einstein’s son, Hans Albert, to get permission to keep the brain, Harvey tells it. Hans Albert’s only condition was that any work on his father’s brain be for scientific purposes only.
‘Do not make the idolaters happy!’
Albert Einstein was well aware that he was a true genius. He more or less predicted what would happen to him after he died. It is not known whether he wanted his body to be tampered with, but before he died, he made a will to one of his closest friends. Knowing that there were crazy people who would worship him after he died, he demanded that he be cremated and his ashes scattered, saying, “Do not make the pagans happy!” Unfortunately, this promise was not fulfilled.
Einstein’s brain was stored in the beer fridge for years:
- Thomas Harvey
Thomas Harvey was not a very clever man. He was fired from the hospital where he worked shortly after the theft. He divided Einstein’s brain into 240 pieces and began to hide it in a special cellulose, they stated. During this period, his relationship with his wife fell apart, and he traveled all over the country looking for a job. When he finally started working in a lab in Kansas, Einstein’s brain was stored in a cider case on the bottom shelf of a beer fridge.
Harvey would occasionally remember that he had the brain of one of the smartest people in the world, and he would study it. However, his work alone was insufficient. In the end, he prepared a thousand microscopic slides of Einstein’s brain. He sent these pieces he prepared to scientists living in many different parts of the world and asked them to examine it. Here at last the brain of a genius fell into the hands of real experts.
Did Albert Einstein have a very strange, unique brain?
Scientists who had taken parts of Einstein’s brain started to work with great enthusiasm. After all, they had pieces of the brain of a man who changed the history of world science. We don’t know if they were disappointed, but Einstein’s brain didn’t look so weird, unusual, or unique, except for minor differences.
Einstein’s brain was slightly lighter than the brain of the average adult man. The lower parietal region was 15% larger than an average brain. In the examinations made on the photographs taken before the brain was fragmented, it was seen that there was no anatomical cleft called the Sylvian fissure. Einstein’s brain did not have some of the changes that a 76-year-old should have.
Was it worth having Albert Einstein’s brain stolen?
Unfortunately no. Science studies are done with fresh samples. Unfortunately, studies on a brain that has been hiding on the bottom shelf of the beer fridge for months are often not accurate. So much so that in the conferences held on Albert Einstein’s brain, it was seen that scientists got different results in their examinations.
Maybe if Albert Einstein’s brain was not stolen by a perverted pathologist, but taken by a competent group of scientists and studied before it rotted, we could unravel the secret of this genius. However, no matter how much work has been done on it, the source of Albert Einstein’s genius has not been resolved in the light of the data obtained. Maybe it had nothing to do with his brain, but unfortunately we don’t even know that exactly.
What happened to Einstein’s brain?
Thomas Harvey, after distributing some of the pieces in his hands and examining some of them, must have been remorseful that he donated the last pieces he had to the pathology department at Princeton Hospital. Today, the last pieces of Einstein’s brain are exhibited in the museum called The Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Again, it is carefully guarded so that a maniac does not come out and steal it.
We told the story of the theft, which really happened, through the question of whether Albert Einstein’s brain was stolen, one of the smartest people in the world, and we talked about the fact that the secret behind this genius is still mysterious. You can share your thoughts on the story of Albert Einstein’s brain being stolen in the comments.