Albert Einstein died in April 1955. At his autopsy, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, removed Einstein’s brain for preservation without the permission of his family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent. The rest of Einstein’s remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.
The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia PA is one of only two places in the world where you can see pieces of Albert Einstein’s brain. Brain sections, 20 microns thick and stained with cresyl violet, are preserved in glass slides on display in the main Museum Gallery. The rest of Einstein’s brain are in the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Springs MD, including 14 photographs of the whole brain (which is now in fragments) never before revealed to the public.
The Mütter Museum’s holdings also include:
A malignant tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland’s hard palate
The conjoined liver from the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker
A piece of tissue removed from the thorax of John Wilkes Booth
The United States Secret Service was established earlier on the day that Abraham Lincoln was killed by Booth.
The modern concept of the photo booth with a curtain originated with Anatol Josepho, who had arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 1923. The first photo booth appeared in 1925 on Broadway in New York City. For 25 cents, the booth took, developed and printed 8 photos, a process taking roughly ten minutes. Today, the vast majority of photo booths are digital.
When Doctor Who was being developed in 1963, the production staff discussed what the Doctor’s time machine would look like. To keep the design within budget, it was decided to make it resemble a police telephone box.
HG Wells was, in 1895, one of the very first to coin and popularize the term ****time machine in his book by the same name in that year. The book’s protagonist, the Time Traveller, tests his time machine with a journey that takes him to A.D. 802,701, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults.
The name Eloi is the Hebrew plural for Elohim, or lesser gods, in the Old Testament.
The six classically known simple machines were the lever, the screw, the inclined plane, the pulley, the wheel and axle, and the wedge.
On March 14, 1794, the cotton gin was patented by its inventor, Eli Whitney. It was the first machine able to easily and quickly separate cotton fibers from their seedpods
The name gin is a shortened form of the older English word genever, related to the French word genièvre and the Dutch word jenever. All ultimately derive from juniperus, the Latin for juniper.
In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Brian, bothered by a crowd that believes he’s the Messiah and won’t leave him alone, responds to their complaints of having nothing to eat by directing them to nearby juniper bushes.
The name Brian is possibly related to the old Celtic element bre meaning “hill”, or by extension “high, noble”. It was borne by the semi-legendary Irish king Brian Boru, who thwarted Viking attempts to conquer Ireland in the 11th century. He was slain in the Battle of Clontarf, though his forces were decisively victorious. The name was common in Ireland before his time, and even more so afterwards. It came into use in England in the Middle Ages, introduced by Breton settlers. It subsequently became rare, but was revived in the 20th century. In the early 1970s it was the 8th most popular name in the US, but is currently down to #182. Meanwhile the popularity of the female forms of the name has risen sharply; Brianna is up at #82.
On July 12, 925, Constantine II of Scotland agreed not to ally with Viking kings in a pledge to Æthelstan, King of England.
Contrary to portrayals in popular culture, Viking helmets were not horned. Many Vikings probably didn’t wear helmets at all. Writing about seven centuries before the Viking era, the Roman historian Tacitus says most Germans didn’t. Contemporary Viking era artwork shows roughly half of Vikings in battle bareheaded, while the rest wear unremarkable dome-shaped or conical helmets. Few helmets have survived from the Viking Age, probably because the rank-and-file wore leather helmets that didn’t last.
In the 8th Century, an Assyrian pope chose the name Constantine, an unusual link between the Roman church and the East. He actually visited Constantinople. A half century afterwards Constantine II was tortured and expelled from the church as an Anti-pope. (Adroitly evading the ninja)
The Federation starship USS Constantinople, a colony ship, was mentioned in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, each with the word “Man” in the title: “The Schizoid Man” and “The Measure of a Man.”
On February 27, 425, Emperor Theodosius II, prompted by his wife Aelia Eudocia, founded the Pandidakterion, often referred to as the University of Constantinople. The Pandidakterion included schools of medicine, philosophy, and law. Some scholars call the Pandidakterion the first “university” in the world.
Aelia Eudocia is a featured figure on Judy Chicago’s installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor.
If Judge Judy were an athlete, her contract salary would be the fourth highest in the world, after Sebastian Vette, Floyd Mayweather and Kimi Räikkönen. Her $47-million is more than the two highest paid New York Yankees players combined.
Sebastian Vettel is a German Formula One driver for Scuderia Ferrari. Vettel is one of only four drivers to have won four or more Formula One Driver’s Championships titles. Those drivers are, by # of championships:
7: Michael Schumacher
5: Fangio
4: Sebastian Vettel, Alain Prost
3: Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, Jackie Stewart, 3 others
I include Senna, one of my favorites.