Cajal's Neuronal Forest: Science and Art

Professor Javier DeFelipe presents his book “Cajal’s Neuronal Forest,” an homage to father-of-modern-neuroscience Santiago Ramón y Cajal that shows the beauty of science as seen through the artist’s eye.

Cajal’s Neuronal Forest contains hundreds of beautiful rarely-seen-before figures produced throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century by the famed father of modern neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), and his contemporaries. Cajal was captivated by the beautiful shapes of the cells of the nervous system. He and his fellow scientists saw neurons as trees and glial cells as bushes. Given their high density and arrangement, neurons and glial cells resembled a thick forest, a seemingly impenetrable terrain of interacting cells mediating cognition and behavior.

Professor Javier DeFelipe, from the Cajal Institute, presents the book, focusing on the scientific atmosphere in Cajal’s times, an delving into the artistic skills of Cajal and other important pioneers in neuroscience and how the neuronal forests have served as an unlimited source of artistic inspiration.

Mónica López-González, from the scientist & artists collective La Petite Noiseuse Productions, and Craig Panner, from Oxford University Press, will also take part in an open round-table after the presentation.