Descartes Is The Latest Genius to Have His Brain Mapped For Signs of Intelligence
Famous physicist Albert Einstein, assassinated Japanese prime-minister Hisashi Hamaguchi, and English engineer Charles Babbage all have at least one thing in common; pickled brains – all cut out of their skulls and preserved after their deaths so researchers could study their genius.
The brain of 17th century French philosopher René Descartes is now dust, but it hasn't stopped researchers from scanning the inside of his skull to learn more about his grey matter - which it turns out is remarkably normal, except for a slight bulge at the front.
Research carried out by a team of French and Dutch scientists involved creating a virtual endocast based on a CT-scan of Descartes' brain case, which allowed them to study the size, shape, and surface of the philosopher's brain compared with 102 physical casts from a diversity of other specimens.
