Posts tagged medicine

Einstein’s Brain is Now an App When Albert Einstein died in 1955, a pathologist named Thomas Harvey removed the brain during an autopsy, had it sliced into sections and then stored it in his basement. Harvey hoped these brain samples would be used by researchers to explore what made Einstein tick and on occasion he’d send out small samples to those who wanted a closer look. Except for a famous cross country road trip in the 90s where Harvey tried to return it to Einstein’s granddaughter, the brain has sat mostly undisturbed since its original removal. But now you can explore it via a $9.99 iPad app from the National Museum of Health and Medicine: Neuroscientists, researchers, educators and the general public now have access to Albert Einstein’s brain via this new iPad app that will allow its users to examine the Nobel Prize-winning physicist’s neuroanatomy as if they were sitting in front of a microscope. Dr. Thomas Harvey was the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein at Princeton Hospital on April 18, 1955. Dr. Harvey removed the brain for study, segmented the brain into approximately 170 parts, roughly grouped by the various lobes and brainstem, and then sectioned those parts into hundreds of microscope sections. These sections were mounted on microscope slides and stained to highlight both cellular structure and nerve conductive tissue. Harvey’s estate donated the collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. In the spring of 2012, the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago (NMHMChicago) obtained private funding support to begin digitizing this collection. This app makes available to the public the portion of the collection that has been digitized to-date. Subsequent releases of this app will add additional materials as their digitization can be completed. So, there’s that. Famous brains are now apps. Image: Screenshot, Einstein’s brain, via the NMHMC Harvey app (iTunes).

Einstein’s Brain is Now an App

When Albert Einstein died in 1955, a pathologist named Thomas Harvey removed the brain during an autopsy, had it sliced into sections and then stored it in his basement.

Harvey hoped these brain samples would be used by researchers to explore what made Einstein tick and on occasion he’d send out small samples to those who wanted a closer look.

Except for a famous cross country road trip in the 90s where Harvey tried to return it to Einstein’s granddaughter, the brain has sat mostly undisturbed since its original removal.

But now you can explore it via a $9.99 iPad app from the National Museum of Health and Medicine:

Neuroscientists, researchers, educators and the general public now have access to Albert Einstein’s brain via this new iPad app that will allow its users to examine the Nobel Prize-winning physicist’s neuroanatomy as if they were sitting in front of a microscope.

Dr. Thomas Harvey was the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein at Princeton Hospital on April 18, 1955. Dr. Harvey removed the brain for study, segmented the brain into approximately 170 parts, roughly grouped by the various lobes and brainstem, and then sectioned those parts into hundreds of microscope sections. These sections were mounted on microscope slides and stained to highlight both cellular structure and nerve conductive tissue. Harvey’s estate donated the collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. In the spring of 2012, the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago (NMHMChicago) obtained private funding support to begin digitizing this collection. This app makes available to the public the portion of the collection that has been digitized to-date. Subsequent releases of this app will add additional materials as their digitization can be completed.

So, there’s that. Famous brains are now apps.

Image: Screenshot, Einstein’s brain, via the NMHMC Harvey app (iTunes).

Nails, Knives and X-Rays

Not quite for the faint of heart, the Denver Post has a slideshow of unusual and bizarre x-rays. Shown here are a few. Click through for all 52. 

Remarkably, each of these people survived.

Descriptions via the Denver Post:

01: In an image provided by University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, a spear accidentally shot through Yasser Lopez’s skull is shown on an X-ray. Lopez, 16, was in serious condition Tuesday, June 19, 2012, at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Hospital officials say one of Lopez’s friends was loading a speargun when it accidentally fired. Lopez was taken to the trauma center June 7 with roughly 3 feet of the spear protruding from his forehead.

02: X-rays of Patrick Lawler displayed during a press conference at Littleton Adventist Hospital in Littleton, Colo, show the man’s skull with a nail embedded in it, following an accident with a nail gun in 2005. Patrick had been using the nail gun on a construction site in Breckenridge, Colo., when it recoiled and hit him in the face. The accident left Lawler with what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. When painkillers and ice failed to stop the ache six days later, he went to a dental office where the four-inch nail was discovered.

03: Six nails embedded in the skull of construction worker Isidro Mejia, 39, after an industrial incident caused a nail gun to shoot nails into his head and brain on April 19, 2004, are seen in this X-ray image from Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Los Angeles. Five of the six nails were removed in surgery that day and the sixth was removed from his face on April 23, after the swelling went down.

04. A photo of an x-ray provided by the Ministry of Defence/British Army shows a knife embedded in the head of an unidentified 10-year-old Afghan boy, in July 2007. Medics from Britain’s reserve Territorial Army, helped save the life of the boy who was stabbed while trying to protect his father during a fight with a male customer in his shop in Kandahar. The skills of the British Army medics at Camp Bastion saved his life.

Select images to embiggen.