I did not know that yesterday!

Rather than using my normal search techniques, I headed straight to Find A Grave, a very helpful, if morbid, resource I've used in the past. The site came through once again, informing us that Albert Einstein was cremated and his ashes were scattered near an unspecified river in New Jersey. The site made no mention of it, but I had heard rumors that Einstein's brain had been preserved. I tried a search on "einstein brain" to get to the bottom it. A page from University if Washington filled me in.

Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, at the age of 76. His body was cremated, and his brain was preserved for scientific study, although whether or not Einstein or his family gave permission to save his brain is up for debate. Dr. Thomas S. Harvey, a pathologist at Princeton Hospital, conducted the autopsy. No one knew what happened to Einstein's brain after Dr. Harvey removed it.

In 1978, Steven Levy, a curious reporter for the New Jersey Monthly, set out to track down the famous brain. After much hunting around, Levy learned that Dr. Harvey still had Einstein's brain in two mason jars in his house in Wichita, Kansas. You can read an abbreviated version of the discovery online.

After Einstein's brain resurfaced, so to speak, several studies were conducted comparing it to "average" human brains. Several key differences were noted that may help explain the great man's genius.

And that's all there is to this (gray) matter.