SCIENCE : Sakharov Brain Sent to Institute

Andrei D. Sakharov’s brain has been sent to a research institute that studied the brain of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, the official press agency Tass said today.

Sakharov, a human rights activist, Nobel Prize winner and father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, was eulogized as the conscience of the country when he died in December at the age of 68.

The nuclear physicist’s brain was sent to the Academy of Sciences brain institute, which was founded as a laboratory to study the brain of Soviet founder Vladimir I. Lenin in 1926, two years after Lenin’s death, Tass said.

Results of the research on the brains of Lenin and Stalin is secret, institute Director Oleg Adrianov said. But he said he has suggested to higher authorities that the research be made public.