Four clear jars sit atop a wooden shelf, each containing a human brain. An actual human brain. A faded-yellow liquid, the color aging books turn, surrounds each brain, almost seeming to make them float. These brains are just for display, but nearby a hundred or so others are waiting to be examined for various neurodegenerative diseases on this morning morning in early August at Boston's VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, tucked discreetly behind the V.A. Hospital.
There will be a brain dissection in a few hours. Most of the brains are housed in large freezers, set at minus 80 degrees Celsius.