Einstein's other mind

Today was published Article on Einstein's mind following a recently published book that dealt with the subject. Below is a summary of the article with my additions.

In the 55 years since Albert Einstein's death, many scientists have tried to discover what made Einstein a genius. However, none of them managed to crack the riddle and did not try as hard as the pathologist Thomas Herby, who lost his job and his reputation in his search for the secrets of Einstein's genius. The Rebbe who analyzed Einstein, took out his brain and did not find the answer. It turns out that through an unexpected series of events, Herbie's search helped transform our understanding of how the human brain works.

Stealing Einstein's brain

It all started with a very strange story. The story is of course related to the death of the genius Albert Einstein and the theft of his brain by a fraudulent scientist. The latter had a crazy idea that became a reality. All in the name of science of course. The desire to know how one discovers a theory like that of relativity and how the mind of a genius of the magnitude of Einstein, Newton, Galileo... works.

Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey. Within hours, the quiet town was flooded with reporters, great scientists and people who just wanted to be close to the great man one last time. It seemed more like the death of a prophet or a prophet than the death of a scientist. There was a huge commotion and everything was blown out of proportion around the hospital. There was an atmosphere of madness, it stuck to the pathologist Thomas Harby and he performed the autopsy after death on Einstein. During the autopsy, he removed Einstein's brain for routine examination, but instead of putting the brain back in its place in the skull, Harby simply put it somewhere else… in a jar of formaldehyde. Rumor has it that it was originally a cookie jar. Outside there was a commotion, reporters and bickering between people, and somehow, Herbie managed to slip away under mysterious circumstances.

The genius, rebellious and strange Einstein

Einstein was indeed famous because he discovered the theory of relativity and not only that. He also changed the face of physics with many other discoveries. However, apart from his genius in science, and it should also be added in his philosophical and conceptual thoughts, Einstein was extremely strange, rebellious and quite a bit brash. He did not tolerate authority. Even as a child he rebelled against the teachers, refused even though and the teachers didn't think anything came out of him because he was rude to them.

Harby used to say that Einstein's eldest son Hans Albert gave him permission to take out Einstein's brain. But Einstein's family vehemently denied it. Anyway, Harvey lost his job and was vilified by many of his colleagues. But he insisted on guarding Einstein's mind in search of the secrets of the genius's intelligence.

The Harby on the go with Einstein's mind

40 years after the death of Einstein, the author of the book On the way with Mr. Albert, Michael Paterniti (Modern, translation: Uri Balsam) contacted Harby by phone and decided to return Einstein's brain to the family, to Einstein's granddaughter, Evelyn, who was living at the time in Berkeley, California. Harby at that time was already over 80 years old and lived alone a few miles from Princeton. Paterniti drove from his home in Maine in a rented Buick van and when he arrived, Herbie was ready to drive to Evelyn Einstein. "He brought the packages with him," says Paterniti, "and in one package was a Tupperware container in which the brain was hidden." They put everything in the trunk and started driving west. In the book above, Paterniti describes the journey with Harbi, the stops, the visit to Harbi's former Shekina and the encounters with magical types along the way. During the Harebi journey, he told Paterniti how he was merely fulfilling his duty to science by sending pieces of Einstein's brain to various neuroscientists over the years. And what does that mean?… That Harvey did not have Einstein's complete brain in Paternity's trunk, but only pieces.

The scattered samples of Einstein's brain

One scientist named Marian Diamond from the University of California at Berkeley requested from Herbie, please send me pieces from four areas of Einstein's brain. Diamond... Hess does not mention her part in the story. But during a 1985 lecture in New York, she described what happened after she requested samples from Harby: “Harby agreed to send them, she said, but months went by and nothing happened. Then, three years later, the pieces of brain tissue arrived in the mail in a jar of mayonnaise."

At that time, in the XNUMXs, most scientists still believed that the important brain activity was mostly done by neurons. Researchers have already learned from other samples of Einstein's brain that he did not have many more neurons than average.

Diamond began to examine another type of cell called glial cells. Glia means glue, and it was assumed at the time that glial cells were simply glue that held the brain together. Diamond wanted to see if there were more glial cells known as astrocytes and oligoendrocytes in Einstein's brain. And so she counted them and found that there were more glial cells - especially in the tissue associated with creativity and complex thinking. This discovery received a lot of attention in the media. But the scientists didn't really know what could be understood from it. The discovery was an interesting finding, but what the astrocytes do was not understood. Could they have been involved in Einstein's genius? It doesn't seem very logical that they would be involved in this.

The eighties passed and the nineties came. A researcher from Stanford University named Steven J. Smith published an article in the journal Science that changed the way of thinking in the field. Smith knew that neurons communicate using a combination of electrical charges and chemical signals. Smith suspected that astrocytes might be able to communicate. But they did this only with the help of chemical signals. Of course, electrical signals are very easy to detect, while chemical signals easily escape us if we don't really look for them.

Smith had an even more far-reaching idea: perhaps the astrocytes were actually agents eavesdropping on the chemical signals that are transmitted between the neurons. Then they retransmit these signals to more distant areas of the brain. If Smith was indeed right, it would mean that astrocytes could be involved in learning, memory and even genius. Smith wanted to test his idea on live astrocytes taken from mice.

A new experiment following the findings from Einstein's mind

Doug Fields, a brain researcher at the National Institute of Health decided to redo the experiment.

During 2009 Fields put astrocyte cells under the microscope. He placed a neurotransmitter (a chemical that is released by neurons and communicates with target cells, usually other neurons) in a pipette and dripped a little into the culture dish. Fields wanted to test whether the astrocytes would sense the neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitter in the pipette is glutamate, a chemical messenger that neurons often use. On the computer monitor he saw that the astrocytes were lit up. Then, after this illumination, the screen changed into waves of light radiating from an initial point of contact. The chemical messenger passed from one astrocyte to the next. And this proves Smith's claim, that the astrocyte cells, which until now were thought to be the glue between the neurons, are in fact communicating. Fields described the feeling: it's like finding another brain inside the existing brain we know. This idea led to Fields' new book the other brain. Fields now understands more why they found an abnormal number of astrocytes in Einstein's brain in areas involved in creative and mathematical thinking.

the other brain

end of journey

Harvey died in 2007. He never gave the remains of Einstein's brain to Evelyn Einstein's granddaughter. Paterniti says that she simply did not want it. And so Harby returned what remained of the brain to the pathology department at Princeton University where it remains to this day. The story of Einstein's mind, the theft for the sake of scientific knowledge is nonetheless frightening, gruesome and desecrates Einstein's memory.