Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse

by Richard Rapport

This is the story not only of one of the nineteenth-century's greatest discoveries but also of the frailty, perseverance, and creativity of human beings. Two doctors, the Spaniard Cajal and the Italian Golgi, were racing against each other to find out what brain cells looked like and how they managed to communicate with one another. Both did their most important research in labs set up on their kitchen tables, for lack of better facilities; and both made landmark findings that led to their jointly receiving the 1906 Nobel Prize. Yet one man would find that neurons communicated over a gap, later named the 'synapse', while the other would die convinced that every brain cell connected to the next. From Parkinson's to neurosurgery, from the mechanics of memory to clinical depression, modern medicine is ever indebted to the one who interpreted the elusive - and rather extraordinary - anatomy of the nerve cell.

Genres: Neuroscience, Brain

244 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2005

Reviews

[André Fiks Salem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be a movie. Great story of globalization, sciencie, ego, passion and family

[John Hewlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book highlights why I do not trust Goodreads ratings. I am an anatomy professor and can attest to the fact that this is a really great little history of the struggle for the validity of “the neuron doctrine.”

[Robert Strupp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Santiago Ramón y Cajal discovered the synapse, the then unnamed gap between neurons when "common knowledge" said that all the nerves in the human body were physically connected. The Spaniard Cajal, along with an imperious Italian scientist, Golgi, eventually received a Nobel Prize in 1906 (back when it was awarded on merit, not a worldwide PR campaign.)

The problem in the 1800s, was being able to see the individual details of the cells of the nervous system under the 19th Century light telescopes then available. Italian Golgi created a staining process "la reazion nera"--the black reaction--which enabled scientists around the world to finally see the workings of the human cell.

Cajal, genius, artist and scientist painstakingly modified Golgi's technique for staining cells and in his remote Spanish laboratory, for years, was clearly viewing intricacies no other biologist could. The procedure he came up with required several days of work to stain one set of slides and took many weeks of trial and error to perfect. Cajal displayed a dedication and tenacity that today, only one hundred years later is as rare as an accurate count of votes for President ... in Russia.

At one point, the Spaniard Cajal was asked to give a speech but was hesitant because his German was so poor. That's okay, the requester replied, you can give your speech in French. How many American scientists today could do that?

The book includes several photos and drawings. One of them shows the actual synapse as viewed through an electron microscope, and seeing that image, I have no conception of why Cajal would have even suspected there was a gap between neurons.

The book has endnotes but they are not superscripted in the text, and since virtually all are from Cajal's own autobiography, they add little to the discussion. There is also a handy 'Glossary' explaining many of the scientific terms used.

'Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse' is a good book to read if one is interested in the early beliefs and methods of and about the human brain. While it is far from a page-turner, I feel better educated having read it.

[Ore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good history lesson & this was on of ‘em. Cajal’s diligence and commitment to exploration is admirable. Hope to reach such levels too.

I think a big lesson was learning to work for long periods without getting “noticed” from people you expect to fawn at the novelty of your work. He never let it stop him, just kept on exploring.

He was also lucky that he was away from the noise so his thinking was more independent.