The Quest for Genius in Einstein's Brain

The bizarre journey of Einstein's brain illustrates the pitfalls in science's search for the origins of brilliance

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On April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein died at Princeton Hospital of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Within hours the pathologist on call, Thomas Harvey, acting on his own initiative, removed the famed physicist's brain without the family's permission. He then preserved the organ, counter to Einstein's stated wish to be cremated. Harvey managed to secure a retroactive blessing from Einstein's son Hans Albert, with the stipulation that the brain would be used only for scientific purposes. But Harvey himself lacked the expertise needed to analyze the organ, so he began to seek out specialists to help him. It would take him 30 years to find one. The quest changed the course of Harvey's life and consigned his precious specimen to a fate that is at once strange, sad and fraught with ethical complications.

Einstein was not the first renowned thinker to have his brain scrutinized in the name of science. The past is littered with similar examples. I found myself drawn into the curious history of these so-called elite brain studies around 15 years ago, when I heard my frustrated calculus students complaining that the Einsteins of the world have a neuroanatomical advantage over mere mortals such as themselves. I found this idea dismaying—most people's brains are fully equipped to learn college-level calculus—but it prompted me to investigate the scientific literature to see exactly what, if anything, brain research has revealed about the source of mathematical ability in particular and exceptional intellect in general. In so doing, I found that, despite enthusiastic efforts over the past two centuries to discern the anatomy of talent or genius, scientists are not much closer to finding it now than they were in the 1800s.

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