I work at a local community college, that I also attend.

My job is to look after the Biology Stockroom and related environs, which includes the cadaver room.

As both part of class and part of my job I participated in the removal of a human brain from its skull. The bone saw cut though the skull more easily and quickly than I had expected, also the horrid smell I was expecting was absent.

It was quite fascinating to remove the center of this person's entire life and personality and hold it in my hands. I doubt there was any way to access those attributes, but I wish we could. The only clues we have to his previous life, as a live person, are his organs. His Skin has an old tattoo of a mermaid on his chest. His heart is enlaged and his lungs are black, indicating he smoked and his heart got bigger to compensate for less oxygen per breath. His liver is also huge, which says he either drank heavily or took drugs in his time that affected his liver- many drugs taken in your later years can cause this. I call him Mr. Mermaid, because of the tattoo.

I'll be video taping some of the dissections soon so that hey can be shared and studied over the web.

Getting to remove someone's brain isn't an everyday accurance, even in my world.

Here's a picture of us cutting the skull to get to the brain.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70897597@N00/382557668