Albert Einstein’s brain on display in Britain
A visitor looks at an artwork entitled ‘My Soul’ by Katharine Dowson which consists of a laser etched lead crystal glass formation in the shape of a brain, and was created using the artists own MRI Scan on March 27, 2012 in London, England. The exhibit makes up part of the Wellcome Collection’s major new exhibition, ‘Brains’ which includes slices of Einstein’s brain, 3000 year old trepanned skulls, ancient Egyptian mummified brains and brains in jars, and opens to the public from March 29 June 17, 2012.
Albert Einstein's brain will go on display at London's Wellcome Collection Thursday as a part of the 'the Mind as Matter' display.
Einstein's brain will join those of a murderer, a suffragette, an ancient Egyptian and a renowned computer scientist, in a display that is meant to teach visitors about the most complex organ in the body.
"(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," said Marius Kwint, the show's co-curator, according to Reuters.
"The different ways in which we have treated and represented real physical brains open up a lot of questions about our collective minds."
Apart from human brains, the show will feature scientific manuscripts, artifacts, videos and photography all dealing with grey matter.
According to the Guardian, the display will also feature primitive brain surgery tools like a wood handled trephine with a shark-toothed blade used for cutting holes in bones.
Yet, Einstein's brain remains the biggest draw.
After his death in 1955 at the age of 76, Einstein's brain was sliced into 240 sections, but only two of which will be in the show, said Sky News.
The sections from Einstein's brain are on loan from the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, after they were publicly shown for the first time in the US last year.
The Mind as Matter show will run from March 29th to June 17th.