adminThe two slides are on loan to the Wellcome Collection from the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, where they were only shown publicly in the US for the first time last year.
Pathologist Thomas Harvey, who carried out the post-mortem examination after the scientist’s death, preserved the brain in jars of formaldehyde at his house.
He said he was given permission by Einstein ‘s son, a claim which was later disputed.
The show’s co-curator Lucy Shanahan said while specimens like the slices of Einstein’s brain can offer little insight into how the scientist tackled such tricky subjects as his Theory of Relativity, the exhibition still has plenty to offer visitors.
“It’s fascinating to be confronted with actual brains. When you see one, or part of one, in a jar or on a slide, in some ways it doesn’t reveal much at all — but at the same time it makes you stop and relate that to what’s going on inside your own head.
“It’s a fascination, if not an obsession.”
To many people’s surprise Einstein’s brain is not particularly large, unlike that of one of his fellow exhibits.
Edward H Rulloff, who was sentenced to death for killing a shop assistant in 1871, and is thought to have murdered his wife and child, is believed to have one of the largest known brains.
The exhibition also includes the brain of an ancient Egyptian — one of the oldest specimens — that of computer science pioneer Charles Babbage, and another containing a bullet wound.
Also on display are artefacts examining our treatment of the brain — from skull saws and drills to a 1950s electroconvulsive therapy machine preserved from a British mental hospital.
Marius Kwint, the show’s other co-curator, said: “(This) single fragile organ has become the object of modern society’s most profound hope fears and beliefs — and some of the most extreme practices and advanced technologies. “The different ways in which we have treated and represented real physical brains open up a lot of questions about our collective minds.” — AFP.
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