Did you know that the brain of Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, was stolen after his death? It’s a bizarre and fascinating story that has puzzled experts for decades.
Albert Einstein, who passed away on April 18th, 1955, had expressed his final wishes before his death – his remains were to be cremated, and his ashes were to be scattered secretly to avoid being turned into a monument. However, events took an unexpected turn when Thomas Harvey, a pathologist at Princeton Hospital, where Einstein died, performed an autopsy on the physicist and, without permission, took his brain.
Harvey, who claimed to have discovered that Einstein’s brain had unique dimensions, decided to keep it. He cut it into sections, preserved it in jars, and took it with him when he moved around the country.
Even more peculiar is that Harvey kept this secret for more than 20 years until a journalist discovered his secret in 1978. It was only then that Harvey began sending out sections of the preserved brain to researchers worldwide to study.
The theft of Einstein’s brain led to a lot of controversy. Many experts criticized Harvey for violating Einstein’s wishes, while others were intrigued by the unique anatomy of the physicist’s brain. Some researchers have suggested that Einstein’s genius intellect could be attributed to the unique size and structure of his brain.
Today, after decades of being studied, Einstein’s brain is distributed across multiple institutions worldwide and still remains a topic of fascination in the scientific community.
In conclusion, the theft of Einstein’s brain is a strange and unbelievable story, but it highlights the ongoing fascination with one of the greatest minds of all time.
