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The brain of physicist Albert Einstein has been a subject of much research and speculation. Einstein's brain was removed within seven and a half hours of his death. The brain has attracted attention because of Einstein's reputation as one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century, and apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to support various ideas about correlations in neuroanatomy with general or mathematical intelligence. Scientific studies have suggested that regions involved in speech and language are smaller, while regions involved with numerical and spatial processing are larger. Other studies have suggested an increased number of glial cells in Einstein's brain.〔Fields, R. Douglas (2009). The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7432-9141-5〕 ==Fate of the brain== Einstein's autopsy was conducted in a lab at Princeton Hospital by pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey shortly after his death in 1955. Harvey removed and weighed the brain and then took it to a lab at the University of Pennsylvania where he dissected Einstein's brain into several pieces; some of the pieces he kept to himself while others were given to leading pathologists. He claimed he hoped that cytoarchitectonics would reveal useful information.〔(NPR: The Long, Strange Journey of Einstein's Brain )〕 Harvey injected 50% formalin through the internal carotid arteries and afterwards suspended the intact brain in 10% formalin. Harvey photographed the brain from many angles. He then dissected it into about 240 blocks (each about 1 cm3) and encased the segments in a plastic-like material called collodion.〔(The Exceptional Brain of Albert Einstein – BIOQUANT LIFE SCIENCE ). Lifescience.bioquant.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-16.〕〔(School of Education at Johns Hopkins University - Graduate Education: Why Einstein's Brain? by Marian Diamond )〕 Harvey also removed Einstein's eyes, and gave them to Henry Abrams, Einstein's ophthalmologist.〔 Whether or not Einstein's brain was preserved with his prior consent is a matter of dispute. Ronald Clark's 1979 biography of Einstein states, "he had insisted that his brain should be used for research and that he be cremated", but more recent research has suggested that this may not be true, and that the brain was removed and preserved without the permission of either Einstein or his close relatives. Hans Albert Einstein, the physicist's elder son, endorsed the removal after the event, but insisted that his father's brain should be used only for research to be published in scientific journals of high standing.〔 In 1978, Einstein's brain was "rediscovered" in Dr. Harvey's possession by journalist Steven Levy.〔(StevenLevy.com » I Found Einstein's Brain )〕 The brain sections had been preserved in alcohol in two large mason jars within a cider box for over 20 years. A minor media sensation ensued, with reporters camping out for days on Dr. Harvey's lawn. Harvey went to California, and paid a visit to Evelyn Einstein, Einstein’s granddaughter. At the time, she was divorced and struggling financially. The fact that Harvey kept her grandfather’s brain struck her as creepy but she was interested in one secret it might hold. She was the adopted daughter of Hans Albert and his wife Frieda. She heard rumors that she might actually be Einstein’s own daughter. Einstein had relationships with various women and she thought that she could have been a result of one of those relationships and that Einstein had arranged it with Hans Albert to adopt her. Unfortunately, the way Harvey embalmed the brain made it impossible to extract usable DNA, so her curiosities were never satisfied. In 2010, Harvey's heirs transferred all of his holdings constituting the remains of Einstein's brain to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, including 14 photographs of the whole brain (which is now in fragments) never before revealed to the public.〔Falk, Dean, Frederick E. Lepore, and Adrianne Noe (2012), ("The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs" ), ''Brain''; 135: 11.〕〔Balter, Michael, "(Rare photos show that Einstein's brain has unusual features )", ''The Washington Post'', Tuesday, 27 November 2012; E6.〕 More recently, 46 small portions of Einstein's brain were acquired by the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. In 2013, these thin slices, mounted on microscope slides, went on exhibit in the museum's permanent galleries.〔http://articles.mcall.com/2013-02-02/entertainment/mc-einstein-mutter-museum-philadelphia-0203-20130202_1_body-parts-display-chang-and-eng〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Albert Einstein's brain」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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