Thomas Stoltz Harvey facts for kids

Thomas Stoltz Harvey (born October 10, 1912 – died April 5, 2007) was an American doctor. He specialized in pathology, which is the study of diseases. Dr. Harvey is best known for performing the autopsy on the famous scientist Albert Einstein in 1955. After the autopsy, he carefully kept Einstein's brain. He did this so that scientists could study it to learn more about how the brain works.

Early Life and Studies

Thomas Harvey went to Yale University for his college studies. Later, he also attended medical school there. During his third year of medical school, he became sick with tuberculosis. This illness kept him in a hospital for a whole year. He later said this was a very tough time in his life.

Studying Albert Einstein's Brain

Dr. Harvey performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein on April 18, 1955. This happened at Princeton Hospital. Einstein's brain weighed 1,230 grams, which is a normal weight for a human brain.

Dr. Harvey then carefully cut the preserved brain into 170 small pieces. This work took him three months to finish. He then made very thin slices from these pieces. These tiny slices were put onto glass slides and colored with special stains.

He created 12 sets of these slides. Each set had hundreds of slides. Dr. Harvey kept two full sets for his own research. He gave the other sets to top brain doctors of that time. Einstein and his family had not given permission to remove and keep the brain. But when they found out, they agreed. They only asked that any findings be published in science journals. They did not want the information to be used in a sensational way.

Research on Einstein's Brain

In 1978, a reporter named Steven Levy found Dr. Harvey. He wrote an article about Einstein's brain. In 1994, a professor from Japan, Sugimoto Kenji, asked Dr. Harvey for a piece of the brain. Dr. Harvey agreed and gave him a small part of the brain-stem.

In 1998, Dr. Harvey gave the rest of Einstein's brain to another doctor. This doctor was Elliot Krauss at the University Medical Center at Princeton.

What Scientists Found

One scientist, Marian Diamond, studied parts of Einstein's brain. She found that some areas had more glial cells than an average male brain. Glial cells are important because they support brain cells. They also help with sending signals in the brain.

Dr. Diamond compared Einstein's brain to the brains of 11 other men. She found that Einstein's brain had more glial cells compared to neurons. This was especially true in one specific area. This area helps combine information from different parts of the brain. Some scientists think that a very active mind might lead to more glial cells. This could be why Einstein's brain had a higher number.

However, Dr. Diamond's study had some limits. She only had one Einstein's brain to compare. Also, glial cells keep dividing as people get older. Einstein was 76, but the other brains averaged 64 years old.

Later Life and Legacy

In 2005, Dr. Harvey gave interviews about Einstein's brain. He was 92 years old at the time. He passed away on April 5, 2007, from problems after a stroke.

In 2010, Dr. Harvey's family gave all his remaining parts of Einstein's brain to a museum. This was the National Museum of Health and Medicine. They also gave 14 photos of the whole brain. These pictures had never been seen by the public before.

TV and Film About Dr. Harvey

• Relics: Einstein's Brain, a documentary from 1994.
• The story of Dr. Harvey and Einstein's brain was shown on the Science Channel show Dark Matters: Twisted But True. This episode aired on September 7, 2011.
• The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain (2023).