iPad App Gives You Access to... Einstein's Brain

Want a look at Einstein's brain? For $9.99 it's yours, as long as you have an iPad. A new application launched today includes detailed scans of the genius' brain: After he died, his brain was removed, sliced up, and turned into almost 350 slides, and a medical museum later scanned and digitized those. Using the app will be like looking at Einstein's brain through a microscope, and could allow researchers to go deeper than ever before, the AP reports.

"I can't wait to find out what they'll discover," says the app designer. "I'd like to think Einstein would have been excited." Studies of the slides have yielded results in the past, like a 1999 study that found one region of Einstein's brain critical to understanding math was 15% wider than typical. But, the AP notes, some may fear Einstein might not have loved the idea of his brain being available to just anyone, for a fee. But the museum feels it's being respectful, and a board member points out that the scans might "inspire a whole new generation of neuroscientists." (More Albert Einstein stories.)