'The Beautiful Brain': A Collection of Drawings By Santiago Ramὀn y Cajal On Neuroscience

Ramὀn Santiago y Cajal is Darwin and Pasteur in the field of neuroscience. He has left an invention which serves a considerable influence for the medical field. Accordingly, he is proclaimed as the father of modern neuroscience for his finding on previously unexplained neural impulse. It is obtained from his passion for art and his interest in the medical field.

Explained in Brainpickings, Cajal since his early age started to fall in love with art, especially drawing. As getting older, Cajal began to explore arts and fall deep to it. He then became fond of photography at age 16. Despite his ambitious toward art, his father did not devote his approval and he instructed Cajal to focus more on science such as himself.

For doing so, he came to have a desire for achievement in science. Driven by his curiosity, he decided to disclose the secret behind neuron system. Depend on the microscope, Cajal personally draws on a paper of how neurons mobile and move. From this research, Cajal not only could satisfy his curiosity, but he was also able to pay out his gratify on drawing.

Reported in The New York Times, later on, 1887 in Madrid, equipped with Golgi stain developed by Camillo Golgi, Cajal managed to acquire more detailed findings. Through these studies, Cajal found out a deeper understanding of one neuron. Subsequently, he summed up the results of these studies and announced neuron doctrine.

Cajal explains that neurons as part of the nervous system are an individual cell. Cajal's theory also describes how neurons move inside the brain in sending and receiving information. From this remarkable discovery, Cajal secured Nobel Prize along with his colleague Golgi in 1906.

Currently, Cajal's drawings on neurons is collected in a book titled "The Beautiful Brain". As it is reported in Abrams Books, this book includes Cajal's exceptional drawings on neurons, brain region, and neural circuit. Larry W. Swanson, as an author, in collaboration with Lyndel King, Eric Himmel, Eric A. Newman, and Janet M. Dubinsky explore Cajal invention and achievement as well as his artistic side in this book.

TagsSantiago Ramὀn y Cajal, The Beautiful Brain, Books