Alexandra Morton-Hayward is a 35-year-old mortician turned molecular paleontologist. At Oxford, where she is a PhD student, she has amassed the world’s largest collection of ancient brains, some dating back 8,000 years. Furthermore, after sifting through centuries of scientific literature, she has amassed an incredible catalog of cases: with over 4,400 preserved brains dating back 12,000 years, provided The Keeper.
››› View the photo gallery ‹ ‹ ‹
For centuries, archaeologists have been puzzled by the discovery of ancient bones with no soft tissue other than what Morton-Hayward cheerfully described as “just brains moving around in a skull. “
Using advanced technologies such as mass spectrometry and particle accelerators, she is leading a new effort to unravel the molecular mysteries that allowed some human brains to surpass Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza.
This research could reveal not only the past but also the secrets of the present. Morton-Hayward suggested that it is the molecular processes that damage us BRAIN it could help preserve it after death – a discovery that could reshape our understanding of aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Alexandra exudes compassion and good humor as she talks about cutting brain tissue. Bloody body parts don’t bother her. When she worked in the funeral business, she handled thousands of corpses, removing their organs and draining their fluids while speaking kindly, as if they were still her clients. alive
The brain is the most fragile human organ
Normally, the brain is our most sensitive organ. Within minutes of loss of blood or oxygen supply, brain damage begins, followed by decomposition. A few hours after death, brain enzymes begin to use the cells inside, a process called autolysis. Within days, the cell membranes break down and the brain fills. Eventually, the blood-brain barrier also breaks down, and microbes invade the body to feast on the nutrient-rich broth – a foul-smelling process called putrefaction, or, in layman’s terms, putrefaction.
If the body is exposed, worms, insects or rodents can salvage the remains. Soon, all that remains is a skull with bare eyes. Decomposition occurs more slowly underwater or underground (the deeper the burial, the slower it is), but most bodies skeletonize within five to ten years.
For all these reasons, scientists have suddenly recognized that brains can sometimes remain intact for thousands of years without embalming, freezing or mineral fossils. Over the generations, ancient brain scans have often been dismissed as curious curiosities, forgotten or simply thrown away. Now, this has started to change.
Store brain samples in cake tins, vials and on glass slides
In his lab in Oxford, Morton-Hayward keeps two refrigerators full of brains, in containers and plastic bags. Several samples sit in crates at room temperature. Above her desk, she keeps brain samples in cookie tins, vials and on glass slides.
His collection is so large that he has moved some samples to outdoor storage – enough to fill three more coolers. Sensing the terrible losses elsewhere, she bought a generator in case there was no power. (In Florida, in 1986, a collection of brains from an 8,000-year-old tomb was destroyed when a freezer lost power.)
Over the past five years, he has collected over 600 brains from around the world
Over the past five years, Morton-Hayward has collected more than 600 brains from scientists around the world. Her biggest prize – 450 brains – came from a cemetery in south-west England that buried the dead from workhouses, asylums and prisoners of war from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Several dozen others come from a mass grave in Philadelphia that is believed to have been home to people suffering from yellow fever. The oldest sample of brain tissue comes from an unfortunate Swede whose head was beaten, chopped off and impaled on a pole 8,000 years ago. “In my experience, people are very happy to give them,” she said. “Some archaeologists are very skeptical about soft material.”
Something strange unites these brains: many come from people who ended their lives in misery. As Morton-Hayward explained, “many of these places where we find preserved brains are actually places of suffering. “
Alexandra started studying brains when she started having terrible headaches
Alexandra connects her interest with the brain to a specific moment – when her own brain began to torture her. While studying archeology at the University of St Andrews, he began to suffer from headaches. Doctors could not find any cause. Finally, an MRI scan revealed something unusual: part of her brain was falling into the hole where the spinal cord enters the skull, a rare condition known as a Chiari malformation.
In her final year at St Andrews, Morton-Hayward underwent a delicate operation to relieve the pressure on her brain. But the attacks continued. “They influence everything I do,” she said. “Every waking moment.” He dropped out of college and sank into depression. “I didn’t know why it was so bad,” she said. “I felt completely useless, like I was a complete failure. “
It turned out he also had a second neurological condition: headaches, one of the most painful conditions known to medicine. In the Journal of Neurology and Stroke, one patient described headaches as an “electrical storm” of pain that makes “your eye feel like it’s going to explode out of your head.”
Headaches usually recur at the same time every day, leaving patients in a state of panic and often leading to secondary conditions such as anxiety, depression or dis- post-traumatic stress disorder.
He tried to kill himself because of migraines
The suicide rate among headache sufferers is 20 times higher than the average. The exact relationship between the two Morton-Hayward conditions remains elusive. “We know so little about the brain, it’s fascinating,” she said. “Sometimes I find it scary, and other times I find it very comforting.”
Over time, the Morton-Hayward feud became unbearable. She tried to kill herself and ended up in the hospital. “I’ve always been a pragmatist,” she said quietly. “I was like, ‘That didn’t work, so let’s try something else. Let’s try to live.'”
After leaving university, she bounced from job to job: trauma nurse, bereavement counsellor, dishwasher and wedding planner (which she found very depressing because, she said, couples were more concerned about tablecloths than ‘ marry the right person).
Desperate for something new, she applied for a vacancy at a funeral home in Rochester, Kent, run by an undertaker who had been in the business since the age of 15. The interview went well and the manager showed him around. He took her to the chapel of rest, a quiet room with curtains and soft music where families say goodbye to their loved ones. To her surprise, Morton-Hayward saw an open coffin containing the body of an elderly woman. “The director put his hands on the side of the coffin and talked to me about this body,” she said.
This was the first time he saw a dead person. “I wasn’t surprised, but I thought it was strange. I was more impressed with how comfortable it was.” She came to see that the program was a test to see if she would be comfortable working with the dead. The answer was yes. “It was the most fun job I’ve ever had,” she said.
What an old brain looks like under a microscope
To the naked eye, the old brain looks like a normal brain, just diminished and reduced. However, when you look under a microscope, the remains of neurofilaments – in fact the remains of the structural framework of the brain – can be seen.
“It’s like a spider’s web,” Morton-Hayward said. “There’s a lot of empty space, which is very strange because they seem so strong.”
His work focuses on elucidating the molecular processes that occur after death and preserve brain tissue. She uses mass spectrometry to identify amino acids and proteins that persist in old tissues (the most common being the myelin basic protein, part of the fatty insulation of neural cables). He also took brain tissue to the Diamond Light Source synchrotron at Harwell, the UK’s national particle accelerator, and spent 19-hour shifts blasting it with electrons traveling at close to the speed of light to detect metals, molecules and minerals. – related to the recognition of conserved brains.
She also conducted experiments to compare brain decay in different burial environments. She placed dead mice in jars of water or quartz dust to study how their brains deteriorated over six months.
Over time, she noticed a corresponding increase in myelin proteins—the same ones she found in abundance in old brains. “In the mouse decomposition experiment, we found brains were preferentially preserved in watery, oxygen-poor environments,” she said. “It’s amazing because those are the only environments where we get preserved human brain.”
2024-10-23 03:00:00
#Collector #Ancient #Brains #Story #Young #Women #Studied #Organs #started #horrible #migraines
