Santiago Ramón y Cajal has rightly been credited as the father of modern neuroscience, the study of the structure and function of the brain. Cajal, who lived from 1852 to 1934, was a neuroanatomist who, over the course of five decades, produced more than twenty-nine hundred drawings that reveal the nervous system as we know it today. He studied many aspects of the brain, from the structure of individual neurons…and the connections between them, to the changes that occur in the brain during early life and following injury. He did this by examining thin slices of the brain under a microscope. He treated these slices with chemical stains to highlight different types of brain cells and structures within these cells. Most notably, he used a stain developed by the Italian biologist Camillo Golgi, which colors brain cells a deep, rich black. Cajal improved upon the original formulation of the Golgi stain to obtain exquisite images of neurons.
The introduction then summarizes the contents of the book.
This book presents eighty of Cajal’s original drawings of the brain... Some of these drawings are well known, while others have not been published previously except in Cajal’s original scientific papers. Captions accompanying the drawings describe their subject matter and their scientific importance. Two essays focus respectively on Cajal’s life and scientific achievements, and his mastery of the art of drawings. A third essay brings us up-to-date, describing modern neuroscience imaging methods that Cajal, undoubtedly, would have appreciated. We hope you enjoy Cajal’s vision of the beautiful brain.
As a teaser, below I present some of Cajal’s drawings.
The structure of the retina.
Cells of the cerebellum.
Purkinje neurons from the cerebellum.
A pyramidal neuron in the cerebral cortex.
I especially like the last drawing, because it is the one Sheldon was supposed to give to Amy Farrah Fowler for Valentine’s Day, but he decided to keep it for himself instead!
Cajal shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Golgi, “in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system.” Below is a photo of Cajal sitting at his microscope. He was a pioneer in photography as well as drawing.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
Here is the schedule for the exhibit, in case you are lucky enough to have it visit your town.
I am an emeritus professor of physics at Oakland University, and coauthor of the textbook Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology. The purpose of this blog is specifically to support and promote my textbook, and in general to illustrate applications of physics to medicine and biology.
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