Albert Einstein's brain

Einstein died of an aortic aneurysm on April 18, 1955. A blood vessel had burst near his heart, according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). When asked if he wanted to have surgery, Einstein refused. "I want to go when I want to go," he said. "It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."

Einstein's body — most of it, anyway — was cremated and his ashes were spread in an undisclosed location, according to the AMNH. However, a doctor at Princeton Hospital, Thomas Harvey, had performed an autopsy, apparently without permission, and removed Einstein's brain and eyeballs, according to Matt Blitz, who wrote about Einstein's brain in a 2015 column for Today I Found Out.

Harvey sliced hundreds of thin sections of brain tissue to place on microscope slides, and snapped 14 photos of the brain from several angles. Harvey moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he was a medical supervisor in a biological testing lab. Over the next 30 years, he sent a few slides to other researchers who wanted to study the brain, but kept the rest of the brain in two glass jars, sometimes in a cider box under a beer cooler. The story of Einstein's brain was largely forgotten until 1985 when a study was finally published.

Harvey failed a competency exam in 1988, and his medical license was revoked, Blitz wrote. Harvey eventually donated the brain to Princeton Hospital, where the brain's journey had begun. Harvey died in 2007. Pieces of Einstein's brain are now on display at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.