I saw Albert Einstein's brain & other fascinations of the human body: Part 1

After 40 years of being kept in a cider box under a beer cooler, Einstein's brain finally saw the light of day.

Einstein, perhaps the most respected genius of our day and the developer of the Theory of Relativity (E +mc2), the world's most famous quotation upon which much of later discovery is based, died in 1955. His brain was removed--without the family's permission--and unbefittingly stored in that cider box under a beer cooler until the pathologist was allowed to keep it on the condition it be used for scientific research.

That most famous Nobel Prize winning brain then was then scientifically shared but is only on public view at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia and one other place in the world. I'm certain just looking at it made me smarter... but then wouldn't I be able to know how to write a square root sign on my computer. Brilliance I guess, is fickle.

The Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia is quite a fascinating place. Einstein's brain is just one of many medical oddities and artifacts on display. There is a six-foot long colon, filled with what you might expect, that came from a man who sadly, couldn't "go." You just don't see things like that every day.

Soap Lady

The "Soap Lady," exhumed in 1875, is there and she is... well, you'll just have to learn that for yourself.


Then you have a cast of conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker and their liver. Chang and Eng were born in Thailand in 1811 and they toured the United States as circus oddities until retirement. They married sisters and lived two lives sharing time and fathering 26 children between them, quite literally. They lived together and died together, as you might imagine. Today's technology may have easily separated them as their conjoinment at the abdomen is now deemed operable.

Abnormal human development

There is a lot more relating to medical discoveries and cures over the ages with a medical basis that advances through the years and shifting perceptions of abnormal human development.

The Mutter Museum will hold your attention for hours with medical exhibits, skeletons and displays that amaze and educate. It is a 'for real' display of the more scientific view of us.

And if you want to go further, you really should see one of the several body works exhibits that have toured the country over the last dozen or more years. Several of these former traveling exhibits now have home bases in the United States. Body Exhibition and Body Works are two examples showcasing actual bodies preserved in action through a 'plastination' process in whole and dissected ways. They are tastefully done, not gory or sensational, though require some judgement as to age of understanding and are interesting to see if that piques your interest or that of any would-be doctor or medical practitioner.

Einstein, not the bagel

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure of the former."

Preview of Coming Attractions: Next blog post I have a book bonanza of further intellectual and pleasurable reading that will carry your interests farther... books that are fun to read for sure.
 

What goes through your mind in the 6.5 seconds while falling 500 feet to your death?

Actually, more... much more than you would think.

Backstory: A recent fictional article (Without Inspection by Edwidge Danticat) in The New Yorker began: " It took Arnold six and a half seconds to fall five hundred feet. During that time, an image of his son, Paris, flashed before his eyes."

Six full pages later, Arnold hit the pavement and died. That's about one page of his life per second... a lot to think about.

While the article is a good fictional read, the six written pages of Arnold's thoughts aren't at all unrealistic according to the research done on that time between awareness of impending death and the live mind. It takes a lot more time to read his thoughts than for Arnold to think them. And in this scenario, it is a really clever way to tell a compelling story.

Actually, if you are (or are not) a fan of television's The Big Bang Theory, the opening is a grand example of how to think back on 14 million years in 23 seconds, but then, that's technology for you. What your mind can do is even more mind-boggling.

This 'more-common-than-you-would-think' happening is scientifically studied as a Near Death Experience: "A personal experience associated with death or impending death." Neuroscience research says "... a NDE is a subjective phenomenon resulting from a disturbed bodily multiscensory integration that occurs during life-threatening events." 

In other words,  your brain says "Oh my God, what is happening to me?" and kicks into a state of hyperactivity and awareness allowing all sorts of things to happen in your mind. It is often referred to as "your life passing before your eyes' before you die... or fearing you are going to die, It is a state of hyper-awareness.

"What Are You Afraid of?" a column in The Atlantic magazine asks: "One reason we struggle with fear is that we're simultaneously too primitive and too evolved for our own good... Our brains are ruthlessly efficient. Signals speed to the threat-sensing amygdala ( two parts of the brain involved in experiencing emotions) within 74 milliseconds of the slightest hint of danger. This speed has, over eons, helped save us from extinction. But it's also led to plenty of false alarms."  Maybe better safe than sorry, huh brain?

One man writes of his NDE which kicked in as his vehicle skidded on 'black ice' when, in mere seconds, he takes stock of all that is happening as he slides helplessly out of control on a crowded expressway. He reviews all of his options and projects who he might hit and where he might wind up, at the same time, turning to check on his young daughter riding behind him who, to his horror, has unfastened her infant seat belt reaching for some skittles, and moves to try to protect her while he fears they may slide into a guardrail--all in an instant. Post crash, they luckily avoided any collision and missing the guardrail, smashed into the hillside. Reflecting back, he is aware that he saw everything as if in slow motion, including his daughter's six skittles and that he can remember their individual colors and positions on the seat.

So if you forgot to take those scrapbook pictures to look back on, don't worry about it. Odds are, you'll have another great chance, but look fast, you only have a few seconds. What makes me think I am expert enough to write about this? Well, just last week, I saw Einstein's brain... really, so there! (A slice of it is actually on permanent display at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.)

Actually, comedian Emo Phillips has it right: "I used to think that the brain is the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this."