Preserving a dead brain in the eternal realm of the Internet may seem like too little, too late. But for scientists who want to understand the ins and outs of axons and nuclei, that project could end up becoming a goldmine.

In 2008, scientists at the San Diego-based Brain Observatory began work on a so-called Digital Brain Library — a massive catalog of hundreds of brains, thinly sliced, photographed, and scanned into the database for widespread public access. The catalog began with one brain, which happened to be a famous brain in neurology circles: a patient by the name of H.M. After having a portion of his brain removed following an epileptic seizure, H.M. began experiencing highly severe short-term memory loss. Thanks to the Digital Brain Library, now virtually anyone can take a peek at H.M.’s brain.

Putting one brain online, let alone the 360 brains the Brain Observatory has waiting in the wings, begins with submerging the organ in a vat of formaldehyde to harden the tissue. Then it soaks in sucrose, after which it’s frozen and put on a massive block that looks like it was built to slice the world’s largest onion. The blade is so sharp, in fact, that it can yield more than 2,000 slices from one 3-pound brain. For reference, H.M.’s brain was sliced into 2,401 layers.

Then the layers are swiped from the machine with a paintbrush and put into a pool to stain. Newly dyed blue, the layer can be photographed at a super-high resolution and uploaded for public use. Ultimately, the team hopes to antiquate its own process — advancing science to the point where it can still look at human brains, only without the initial requirement that the person be dead.