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Strange Journey - Search Results



The strange journey of Einstein's brain began on the evening of April 17, 1955, when the seventy-six-year-old physicist was admitted to Princeton Hospital complaining of chest pains. He died early the next morning of a burst aortic aneurysm. As in the cases of Carl Gauss and Walt Whitman, the issue of permission to perform an autopsy is clouded by subsequent testimony. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist on call that evening, would later say, "I just knew we had permission to do an autopsy, and I assumed that we were going to study the brain." As reporters soon discovered, Harvey did not have permission. Nor did he have a legal right to remove and keep the brain for himself. When the fact came to light a few days later, Harvey managed to solicit a reluctant and retroactive blessing from Einstein's son, Hans Albert, with the now-familiar stipulation that any investigation would be conducted solely in the interest of science, and that any results would be published in reputable scientific journals. But Einstein's dignity had already been compromised. He had left behind specific instructions regarding his remains: cremate them, and scatter the ashes secretly in order to discourage idolaters. Yet not only did Harvey take the brain, he also removed the physicist's eyeballs and gave them to Henry Abrams, Einstein's eye doctor. They remain to this day in a safe deposit box in New York City, and are frequently rumored to be poised for the auction block.




strange journey - search results



After losing his job, Harvey took the brain to a Philadelphia hospital, where a technician sectioned it into over two hundred blocks and embedded the pieces in celloidin using a variation of the Economo method. Harvey gave some of the pieces to Harry Zimmerman, and placed the remainder in two formalin-filled jars, which he stored in the basement of his house in Princeton. Occasionally, he would try to interest a brain researcher in his quest, but most of the inquiries he fielded came from reporters. Whenever they asked what was being done, Harvey would confidently proclaim that he was just one year away from publishing his results. He would continue to give the same answer for the next forty years.


During the first thirty years of this strange odyssey, the study of Einstein's brain went nowhere. To his credit, Thomas Harvey stuck to his promise. At any time, he could have sold the brain piecemeal or whole for a quick profit. Yet he never stopped trying to find researchers willing to study it. Not many were interested. Some dismissed the idea as nonsense, as starry-eyed lunacy. A few others agreed to have a look. Harry Zimmerman, who possessed about a sixth of the specimen, found nothing unusual, at least not in the brain itself. He was not so sure about his former colleague, and he began to deflect reporters' questions by claiming that Harvey was dead.


Colette has been living a happy life as an apprentice alchemist, but when a mysterious stranger pays her master Priscilla a visit, Priscilla sets out on a journey. With her master gone, it's up to Colette to inherit the workshop and help those in need while also embarking on adventures of her own!


Companies should no longer treat search as a siloed function. They should treat it as the start of a customer journey. They should consider the person behind the question. What is his or her context, intention and ultimate goal? 041b061a72


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