The Unfixed Brain
This video is a bit graphic, but it’s also pretty amazing.
Most of us “think that the brain is sort of the consistency of a rubber ball,” says neurobiologist Suzanne Stensaas of the University of Utah. That’s the consistency the organ becomes when researchers preserve it in chemicals, such as formaldehyde.
But when alive and firing, the brain is actually really soft and compressible, like a sack of goo. “It’s much softer than most of the meat you see in a market,” Stensaas says.
In this video, Stensaas explores the anatomy of a 1,400 gram brain freshly removed from an autopsy, before it’s put in any chemicals.
The video gave me a whole new understanding and appreciation for how remarkable — and vulnerable — this amazing organ is.