Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse

By Richard Rapport

Book Overview

The dual stories of two doctors who jointly received the 1906 Nobel Prize follows the discoveries of Spanish countryside physician Cajal and Italian researcher Golgi, who raced against each other from primitive kitchen laboratories, made pivotal contributions to brain science, and ended their careers supporting significantly different theories. 15,

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393060195
• ISBN13: 9780393060195
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Neuroscience history

One of the best ways to learn a science is to learn the history of that science. Like "In Search of Memory", "Nerve Endings" is a biographical work about the life and scientific contributions of a Nobel prizing winning neuroscientist. The author documents the 19th century debate about the existence and purpose of the synapse and the personal rivalry between Dr. Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Dr. Camillo Golgi. I would recommend this book to any neuroscience student.

On the shoulders of giants

In this engaging and well written book, part history of science, part biography, Rapport focuses on the intellectual war that eventually led to the discovery of the neuron theory. The neuron theory - the idea that the nervous system consists of discrete cellular units (neurons) - was one of the key, early discoveries of neuroscience. It has radically accelerated our understanding of how the brain works and it has since had wide-ranging implications, for neurosurgery, psychiatry and other fields. At heart of the story lie two characters: a charismatic Spanish artist and scientist, Santiago Ramon y Cajal and an equally brilliant, but dogmatic, Italian scientist, Camillo Golgi. These two men (both of whom were awarded the Nobel prize in 1906) were the representatives of two opposing scientific camps who were engaged in an acrimonious intellectual battle during the second half of the 19th century. The point of contention was the structural anatomy of the nervous system. Cajal represented the `neuronist' camp, who claimed that the nervous system consisted of individual cellular units that communicated with one another across tiny gaps (these gaps are called synapses). In contrast, Golgi headed the `reticularists' who held that the entire nervous system was linked in one giant network, that there were no individual cells that were separated from each other. Besides making many important discoveries in the field of biology (discovery of the Golgi apparatus, the Golgi tendon organ) Camillo Golgi also invented a method for preparing slides of nervous tissue - called silver (Golgi) staining. Silver staining allowed scientists to begin making detailed analyses of nervous tissue for the first time, using light microscopes. Golgi contributed much to the early study of neurohistology, but he confused certain branching neuronal processes (the axon collaterals) for widely ramifying protrusions that he thought connected the entire nervous system in one large network. He used this observation to support his erroneous reticularist theory; at the same time, Cajal was using and improving Golgi's silver staining method to develop the opposing (and as it turns out, correct) theory of neuronal structure. Cajal was a visionary genius, "fascinated by the bewitchment of the infinitely small." His contribution to neuroanatomy is immeasurable. He used his considerable artistic skills to complete extremely detailed drawings of the nervous system that were used in textbooks for years to come. Unlike Golgi, Cajal did not think that the nerve cells were all connected in one diffuse net. He deduced the existence of the synaptic gap from the way that the terminal axons of presynaptic neurons and the dendrites of postsynaptic neurons appeared to fit each other so well (the synapse was not actually seen until the arrival of electron microscopy in the first half of the twentieth century). But more than helping to clarify the anatomy of the nervous system, Cajal was remarkably pres

History in the making, the discovery of the synapse

A very well written, and nicely illustrated history of the early years of research on the synapse, illuminating the differences in opinion between Ramon y Cajal and Golgi. Which controversy, in the end, has overshadowed the multitude of work Golgi did.

An intriguing survey of parallel lives and very different perspectives

Dr. Richard Rappaport's study of the discovery of the nerve synapse Nerve Endings also presents the story of two doctors who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906 yet were separated by geographical and psychological differences. The parallel lives and discoveries of Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi provides an intriguing survey of two men whose similar discoveries and investigative processes led to the science of neurosurgery and better understanding of neurological diseases. An intriguing survey of parallel lives and very different perspectives.

A literary works that entertains

NERVE ENDINGS is a jewel of a book written by neurosurgeon Richard Rapport, in his extremely lucid and sometimes humorous style, on the life and contributions of Ramon Cajal,- one of neuroscience's greatest anatomists. Although not an avid reader of biographies, I am a fan of Rapport's writing, having read his numerous contributions to Northwest Review and his book PHYSIAN: THE LIFE OF PAUL BEESON. So, based on this, I ordered NERVE ENDINGS. I was not disappointed. From the introduction to the last chapter I was always entertained, educated, and enthralled. I recommend this book to devotees of fiction and non-fiction alike as an extremely satisfying read.