Starting today at 11am ET, researchers at UC San Diego will begin slicing up a human brain into about 2,400 slices each thinner than a human hair. The project will be carried out in one continuous session and you have front row seats. The entire 30-hour event can be viewed via a live video feed from UCSD giving everyone  the opportunity to peer into one very famous brain.

For over 50 years the man inside this brain was simply known as HM. After his death (one year ago today) at the age of 82, the name of the patient who revolutionized our understanding of memory was revealed to the world: Henry Molaison.

Molaison was seven years old when he was hit by a bicycle which was the most likely cause of the severe seizures he experienced years afterwards. By the time he was 27, even heavy doses of anti-convulsants weren’t able to help him lead a normal life. As a last resort, he decided to participate in an experimental procedure to remove a portion of the medial temporal lobes of his brain hoping this would stop his seizures. The surgery was a success but it also left him with anterograde amnesia–the inability to form long-term memories.

Despite the fact that he lived his life from second to second–or as he described it, “like walking from a dream…everyday is alone in itself…”–Molaison was always described as a kind and gentle person. Brenda Milner, who worked with HM for decades, even said that though he never recognized her, he did seem to understand that he was part of an important research project and loved to help out anyway he could.

One of the most fascinating parts of the research on Molaison was his ability to learn new motor skills. Molaison was asked to trace the outline of a star by looking at his hand in a mirror–not a very easy thing to do. Every time he was asked to do this he would explain that it looked like a difficult task but he would do the best he could. Despite never remembering having done the mirror-tracing task before, he got better and better at it every day.

Every 30th slice of Molaison’s brain will be stained and mapped  in order to produce a three-dimensional model of his brain. All other slices will be available for research.

I encourage everyone to take a quick peek at what is an important event in neuroscience.

Link to the video feed.