Science & technology | Neuroscience

How neurons really work is being elucidated

That will help both medicine and the search for better artificial intelligence

Santiago Ramón y Cajal's drawingsDr. Juan A. de CarlosInstituto Cajal (CSIC)Avenida del doctor Arce, 3728002-Madrid

A neuron is a thing of beauty. Ever since Santiago Ramón y Cajal stained them with silver nitrate to make them visible under the microscopes of the 1880s (see drawing above), their ramifications have fired the scientific imagination. Ramón y Cajal called them the butterflies of the soul.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Butterflies of the soul”

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