Piece of Mind

synonymous with genius. The German born physicists created the theory of general relativity, which changed humanity's understanding of time and space. Einstein is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He reached a level of celebrity that few scientists ever do. But as he got older, all Einstein really wanted was to be left alone. When discussing his last wishes with his family, he told them, and I quote, I want to be cremated so people

won't come to worship my bones. Einstein request suddenly became a very important issue. In April of nineteen fifty five, at seventy six years old, he suffered an aneurysm and died in New Jersey's Princeton Hospital. His family wasn't there at the time, so the pathologist on duty, doctor Thomas Harvey, went forward with the hospital's normal protocol for autopsy and the remains. But this was not your average autopsy. This

was Albert Einstein. Starstruck and apparently not thinking straight, doctor Harvey did something unimaginable. Rather than focus on Einstein's arteries, you know, the actual cause of his death, Doctor Harvey cut opened the Nobel Prize winning scientist's skull and took his brain. Apparently not satisfied with the gray matter, He also cut out Einstein's eyeballs. Doctor Harvey later claimed that all of this was for purely scientific purposes, but that

explanation didn't really add up with his behavior. You see, he sent Einstein's eyes off to the late physicist eye doctor Henry Abrams, who reportedly just kept them. As for the brain, Harvey stored it in a jar and refused to give it back to the hospital. Doctor Harvey, once a respected pathologist, had become a body snatcher. Einstein's relatives didn't learn about his missing organs until two days later, when the rest of his body had been cremated. His

son Hans was furious. Of course, this was a total violation of his father's wishes. But somehow doctor Harvey got in touch with Hans and explained that he wanted to study Einstein's brain in the name of science. Seeing as the pathologist already had the brain and wasn't going to part with it willingly, Hans gave his reluctant blessing. With that, doctor Harvey took Einstein's gray matter to the University of Philadelphia. He and other neuropathologists cut it into hundreds of block

shaped pieces plus thousands of ultra thin cross sections. They were then sent to experts all over the country for study. Over the following years, information about the great physicist's mind was published. One study said that he might have had more glial cells than the average person. Glial cells, by the way connect and support neurons, so put simply, an excess amount might have made Einstein smarter, but that's not proven, and a lot of experts think this study should have

been deemed inconclusive. Another study claimed that the part of Einstein's brain responsible for visual thinking was wider than normal. Yet another positive that Einstein had an extra ridge in his mid frontal lobe, which might have given him a better than average memory. But Annadouty, a forensic anthropologist, points out the flaws in any modern post mortem brain study. According to her and I quote, there's a night and day difference between a living brain and a dead brain.

A living brain has infinite amounts of things you can study and learn. It is pretty finite in what you can learn from a dead brain. Ultimately, studying Einstein's brain in this way is kind of futile. The idea that his genius can somehow be reduced to glial cells and extra ridges ignores the stuff that can't be quantified, like his childhood experiences, his capacity for creativity, his work ethic,

and countless other factors. Even neurologists agree that intelligence is not simply a matter of physiology, so the roots of brilliance remain something of a mystery. But that doesn't mean that people aren't fascinated by the idea of actually seeing the mind of a genius. These days, the majority of Einstein's brain is stored and displayed at Philadelphia's Moodor Museum

of Pathology. It's one of their main attractions, actually, which Einstein, who explicitly asked people not to flock to his dead body probably would have hated. And as for doctor Thomas Harvey, that decision to steal Einstein's brain pretty much ruined his career. He was fired from his job at Princeton Hospital, his wife divorced him, he lost his medical license. Years later, it came out that he was still hiding pieces of Einstein's brain in his own house, which sounds horrible and

it is. But the eyeballs are an even creepier story. As far as anyone knows, they're still in the hands of Einstein's old eye doctor. Rumor has it that they're stored in a safe deposit box somewhere in New York or New Jersey. And that's an image I just can't get out of my head, Albert Einstein's eyes staring at the dark walls of a metal box for all of eternity. Can I be honest for a second. I don't like needles.

The doctor's office makes me nervous. The idea of undergoing major surgery, especially something like brain surgery, absolutely terrifies me. I know a lot of my fear is unfounded, of course, after all, neuroscience has advanced by leaps and bounds over the last century alone. Much of that is thanks to one man too, doctor Harvey Kushi, also known as the father of neurosurgery, the first person to ever successfully remove

a brain tumor. Doctor Cushing was a brilliant artist, researcher, and scientist, not to mention an avid collector of human organs, but we'll get to that part in a minute. Doctor Cushing's greatest contribution to medicine may have been his use of the Bovy technique. You see, prior to the nineteen twenties, one of the biggest obstacles in neurosurgery, or any type of surgery for that matter, was bleeding. The minute a doctor made an incision. Blood loss became a significant concern.

Although tourniquets and rudimentary cauterization techniques did exist, they weren't always fool proof. That's why in nineteen twenty William T. Bovie created the aptly named Bovy Tool. It was essentially a pen with a superheated electrical tip. It could create

an incision while simultaneously cauterizing the wound. Doctor Cushing was the first person to use the Bov tool during brain surgery back in nineteen twenty six, and almost immediately it brought survival rates up from about twenty percent to over ninety percent Before doctor Cushing, having your skull cracked open was almost a guaranteed death sentence. And while I won't argue that neurosurgery isn't scary, doctor Cushing made it a lot less dangerous. On top of this, he was a

tireless researcher and record keeper. He saw thousands of patients throughout his lifetime, many of whom had neurological disorders that had never been named or even studied before. Doctor Cushing kept detailed notes and also took photos of his patients before and after surgery to document their symptoms, and if the patient was suffering from something that doctor Cushing believed would prove terminal, he often got their permission to study

their brain after they died. And this is how doctor Harvey ended up with a collection of over five hundred preserved human brains. Remember, genius rarely comes without a side of madness stored in glass jars and displayed in his office. Doctor Cushing was the proud owner of women's brains, men's brains, children's brains. There were brains racked with tumors and others

afflicted by mysterious, unnamed diseases. He even had a few skeletons which belonged to people who'd lived with various neurological conditions. When doctor Cushing died in nineteen thirty nine, his family was faced with a question that few of us will ever have to ask, what do we do with this giant collection of brains and bones? And ultimately they decided to donate them all to Yale University, where doctor Cushing

had received his undergraduate degree. For the next few decades, this collection helped up and coming neurosurgeons learn and expand upon doctor Cushing's work, but as the field of neuroscience advanced, the specimens became less and less useful. In nineteen seventy nine, doctor Cushing's entire collection was relegated to a basement beneath one of Yale's medical school dorms, where it would remain untouched for nearly twenty years. Then, in the nineteen nineties,

some medical students discovered the locked basement door. It wasn't too hard to break in using a screwdriver, and when they walked into the dark room, they were struck with the scent of formaldehyde and then they saw hundreds of brains floating in glass jars, all stacked on dusty shelves. Sneaking into this room became a sort of rite of passage for Yale medical students. Being among the brains was equal parts disturbing and inspiring, somehow magical and perverse at

the same time. It was, as one student put it later, and I quote, like a shop of horrors. The overwhelming atmosphere was that you're in a place that maybe you shouldn't be in, which, yeah, they did literally break in, so they were not supposed to be there. But as Yale administrators realized the hidden nature of the collection only added to its allure, they started thinking about bringing doctor

Cushing's brains back into the light. In twenty ten, they moved the collection into a different basement below one of Yale's libraries. These days, the room is known as the Cushing Center, and it's a museum where the late doctor's curious collection is displayed for all the public to see. Oh and there's one more interesting item in the collect Doctor Harvey Cushing just so happened to be friends with Ivan Pavlov, you know, the guy that came up with

the famous Pavlov's dog experiment. One day, while the two scientists were hanging out, doctor Cushing showed Pavlov the Bobie tool, the electrical cauterizing pen that I talked about earlier. Pavlov used the tool to write his name on a piece of steak. Ever, the collector, Doctor Cushing, took that steak and stuck it inside a jar with some formaldehyde, and so Pavlov's preserved signature is still on the meat, which

is now housed in Yale's Cushing collection. So if you're ever in the area, stop by to take a look at what might just be the world's most curious cutlet. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky and partnership

with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.