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.
 

This is a repeat of my post in March, 2011. There is NOTHING MORE VITAL that I have ever published than this. HINT: the kicker is in the last story of this blog and if you don't care about that, then there will be nothing else left to care about for tomorrow.

Things that amaze me most: Part VIII

As I told you before, there are a number of things/events/emotions that absolutely blow-my-mind because they are so introspectively amazing and give me a deeper sense of awe. So I made a list of the things that amaze me most... some big, some small, some acts, some things... but all, in my mind, amazing.  So far:

Part I:    THE PACIFIC OCEAN
Part II:   BIG NUMBERS
Part III: THE YOUNG: Babies, toddlers and teens
Part IV:  LAUGHTER: A peek into the soul
Part V:   NATURE: Her splendor and fury
PART VI: THE POWER OF 1
PART VII: THE NATURAL LAWS OF PHYSICS


PART VIII: US HUMANS

Big, small, short, tall-- from a single cell embryo to Troy Jackson... who just died at 38. Troy was a basketball player... a 'classic' big man who could handle the ball--and look at how he could handle it. He was 6'10" tall and weighed as much as 500 lbs... or Shaq O'Neil who wears a size 23 shoe.

 Or... the World's Tallest man - Bao Xishun (7ft 7") or... the World's smallest adult, He Pingping (2ft 4").  How the heck did that all happen?

Funny thing is, we all started (with few exceptions-- in vitro fertilization, donor sperm or egg, Mary, mother of God, etc.) the same way. And if you don't know what that way is, then you'd better finally have that talk with mom and dad.

In any case, this is what the initial courtship  looks like... and yes, it is worth a few seconds to watch it.

Aww...The new baby. He/she has mom's eyes... and grandpa's sloping forehead, and cousin Ernie's long, tapered, pool-playing fingers... er, no fingers yet... but just you wait.

It is absolutely mind-blowing INCREDIBLE! From a single cell to... you and me, with all of our complexities, foibles and personalities. And the reason Baby Blue... or Pink, will look like us is that he/she has our genetic imprint... the heredity coding that says if your second toe is longer than your big toe, so will your baby's be... and if that big nose comes from grandpa's side of the family, baby's will look Italian too. The hair, the intelligence, the health, both good and bad, will all come from mom and dad and beyond.

As if that isn't enough, just imagine what we have learned to help us through life... all the technical, medical, psychological and social advances (and detractions) that build from generation to generation. Heck, our great-grandparents could have easily died in childbirth, or from appendicitis, or a bad tooth-ache, as many did! We even watched television in black and white, for God's sake. And we have, for better or worse, adapted to it all. 

Whether we are born here of there, of this race or that, big or small, male or female, we have a commonality to our heirs and one another:

If you are an Adam and Eve fan, then hello brother, hello sister.
If you go more for evolution, then shake hands with me, you big ape.
If you feel there is a place for both, I'm your man, just like him, her, it.


OK... are you ready for the moral of this story? We are all linked and dependent on one another... we just all haven't come to the point of accepting that as a human race. We still hate, show envy and prejudice. We still ignore the human rights and needs of others. We still kill and mistreat. The Golden Rule has nothing on us.

We can do better. We have to, because every moment of every day, there are more of us than ever before--5 times more people now than in 1900-- and we are all living in the same house as we always have... the one we call earth.


One last thought about that "house:" A mom tells of the conversation she had with her daughter... and the simple wisdom of a child that we often forget as we age.

Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling.  I chuckled and asked, “Why?”

She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.”
  
I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?”
  
 “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff.”

(Thanks to Marc and Angel Hack Life website.)