Courtesy of ideachampions.com
Today is Albert Einstein’s birthday and Pi =(3.1415926535…) day one of the most famous days named after a mathematical constant! As we remember this genius scientist and humanist responsible for the development of theory of relativity, photoelectric effect and Brownian motion.
But there is also the odd story about his famous brain.
Seven hours about an autopsy was performed on Albert Einstein, his brain was surgically removed Thomas Stoltz Harvey, a pathologist who took it without permission.
Mr. Harvey wanted to study Einstein’s brain to see why he was such a genius, but lacked the ability to research it extensively. He took pictures of the brain and then dissected it into 240 blocks, which he put into mason jars.
A few months later, Mr. Harvey was fired from Princeton Hospital because he wouldn’t share the brain. He kept it, took it with him and overtime gave small brain bits to researchers. Finally, he brought what was left of the brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss at Princeton Hospital in 1996, where the fragments remain today.
Five other quick facts about Albert Einstein:
1. In 1952, shortly after the death of Israel’s first president, Einstein was offered the job. He declined. In the letter he wrote to the diplomat who offered him the job, one reason he gave was that he wouldn’t be good at working with people.
2. When Einstein wanted to divorce his first wife, Mileva Maric, he told her he would win the Nobel Prize one day and give her his future winnings if she’d grant him a divorce. Maric accepted, but had to wait three years for the prize money.
3. As a child, Einstein didn’t start talking until he was 3 years old. He continued to have trouble speaking through elementary school, and was still not completely fluent in his own language as a 9-year-old.
4. Einstein’s second wife, Elsa Einstein, was also his first cousin.
5. One of Einstein’s earliest inspirations was a compass. When given one at age 5, he became transfixed by the needle and wondered what gave it the ability to always swing in the right direction.
More on his brain:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2009/04/17-01.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57330609/parts-of-einsteins-brain-on-display-for-first-time/
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