The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal - Hardcover

Swanson, Larry; Newman, Eric; Araque, Alfonso

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419722271 ISBN 13: 9781419722271

Publisher: Amulet Books, 2017

Synopsis

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934), the father of modern neuroscience and a Nobel laureate, was an exceptional artist. He devoted his life to the anatomy of the brain, the body’s most complex and mysterious organ. His superhuman feats of visualisation, based on fanatically precise techniques and countless hours at the microscope, resulted in some of the most remarkable illustrations in the history of science. Beautiful Brain presents a selection of his exquisite drawings of brain cells, brain regions and neural circuits with accessible descriptive commentary. An art book at the crossroads of art and science, Beautiful Brain describes Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience, explores his artistic roots and achievement and looks at his work in relation to contemporary neuroscience imaging techniques.

About this title

About the Author

Javier DeFelipe, author of Cajal’s Butterflies of the Soul (2009), is a neuroscientist at the Instituto Cajal, Madrid. Larry W. Swanson of the University of Southern California is the author of Brain Architecture (2012) and a past President of the Society for Neuroscience. Eric A. Newman, Alfonso Araque and Janet Dubinsky are distinguished neuroscientists at the University of Minnesota.

From the Back Cover

At the crossroads of art and science, Beautiful Brain presents Nobel Laureate Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience through his groundbreaking artistic brain imagery.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) was the father of modern neuroscience and an exceptional artist. He devoted his life to the anatomy of the brain, the body’s most complex and mysterious organ. His superhuman feats of visualization, based on fanatically precise techniques and countless hours at the microscope, resulted in some of the most remarkable illustrations in the history of science. Beautiful Brain presents a selection of his exquisite drawings of brain cells, brain regions, and neural circuits with accessible descriptive commentary.

These drawings are explored from multiple perspectives: Larry W. Swanson describes Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience; Lyndel King explores his artistic roots and achievement; Eric A. Newman provides commentary on the drawings; and Janet M. Dubinsky describes contemporary neuroscience imaging techniques. This book is the companion to a traveling exhibition opening at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis in February 2017, marking the first time that many of these works, which are housed at the Instituto Cajal in Madrid, have been seen outside of Spain.

Beautiful Brain showcases Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience, explores his artistic roots and achievement, and looks at his work in relation to contemporary neuroscience imaging, appealing to general readers and professionals alike.

Edition details

• Publisher: Amulet Books
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419722271
• ISBN 13: 9781419722271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208