History Magazine These 3,year-old giants watched over the cemeteries of Sardinia. Science Coronavirus Coverage What families can do now that kids are getting the vaccine. Magazine How one image captures 21 hours of a volcanic eruption.
Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. Travel A road trip in Burgundy reveals far more than fine wine. Travel My Hometown In L. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history.
Dhody has a theory about why: Einstein "might have been worlds and worlds smarter than we will ever be, but at the end, we all have a brain. Matt Blitz is a history and travel writer. He also runs the Obscura Society DC and is a big fan of diners. Urban Explorations A Smithsonian magazine special report.
As it would be eventually discovered, Harvey became the de facto owner of the brain. Five years ago, I held in my hands a formalin-filled jar containing several fragments of grey tissue wrapped in gauze. But several years before his death, circumstances forced him to undergo an exploratory laparotomy due to severe abdominal pains. He was found to have a grapefruit-sized aortic aneurysm. At the time there were no good invasive options, and physicians opted to wrap the aneurysm with a cellophane-like material—much like how a plumber might wrap a pipe to keep it from leaking.
That patch held in place for the next 5 years. On April 13, the aneurysm began to leak, and doctors quickly diagnosed an eminent rupture. Einstein refused further treatment—probably appropriately, since there was no treatment that would have saved him.
He died 5 days later. A very private man, Einstein requested that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in a private location. There is no written evidence that Einstein wanted his brain to be used for scientific purposes, although there is an assertion that Einstein had some interest in the idea.
Many years before his death, skull film There was a skull film taken as well as an electroencephalography EEG many years before. In any case, without permission from his son and executor, the brain was removed and preserved in a manner that was common at the time. The family was irate to learn about this digression, but eventually gave their blessing to Harvey to conduct research on the brain for scientific purposes, under the stipulation that no findings be subject to sensationalism.
Harvey had intended to have a group of distinguished neuroanatomists review the brain, then write a paper. Approximate locations of cortical area 9 and area 39 The Data The ratios of neurons to glial cells in Einstein's brain, as compared to those in the 11 normal brains, were smaller in all four areas studied.
The Conclusion The authors concluded that the greater number of glial cells per neuron might indicate the neurons in Einstein's brain had an increased "metabolic need" - they needed and used more energy. The Problems Scientists are trained to read published papers carefully and to evaluate the methods, results and conclusions of experiments.
First, the "normal" brains that were compared to Einstein's may not have been the best group for comparison. The average age of these brains was 12 years younger than Einstein's brain. In fact, the youngest brain in this group was only 47 years old. It is possible that the neuron to glial ratio seen in Einstein's brain was quite normal for his age and that the younger comparison group just did not show these changes yet.
Also, the paper did not describe the background of the comparison group. What was their intelligence and cause of death? Would these factors have anything to do with the observed brain differences?
Second, the "experimental group" had only one subject Additional studies are needed to see if these anatomical differences are found in other people with conceptual and mathematical skills like Einstein. Third, it appears that only a very small portion of the four areas of each brain was studied.
The paper states that "Four to six sections were cut from each block, Einstein's and the controls?. There is no indication that this single thin section was obtained from similar regions of area 39 and area 9 from the different brains. It is even unclear how much of each section was counted. Moreover, only the ratio of neurons to glial cells was published. The total number of cells that were counted is not given in the paper.
This is important to get an idea of how the experimenters came to their conclusions. Did you know? The brain of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was also studied by scientists. Lenin, who was leader of the Russian revolution in , died in His brain was removed before his body was laid to rest in a mausoleum in Moscow. The Soviet government commissioned the well-known German neuroscientist Oskar Vogt born , died to study Lenin's brain.
Vogt spent two and a half years preparing and studying Lenin's brain. He finally published a paper on the brain in where he reported that some neurons pyramidal neurons in layer III of the cerebral cortex of Lenin's brain were very numerous and large.
Cortical structure and mental skills: Oskar Vogt and the legacy of Lenin's brain , Brain Research Bulletin, , Where is Einstein's brain now?
0コメント