One of the most important discoveries in the history of neuroscience, the study of the brain, was the realization that the neuron was the functional unit of the brain. What do you think of when you hear neuroscience research? Perhaps you think of scientists or doctors, white lab coats, fancy brain imaging equipment, or maybe somebody wearing a cap with electrodes on it for an EEG. Consider this, one of the most famous important neuroscience discoveries use a very homely technology, a pen and some paper. Ramon Santiago y Cajal is known as the father of neuroscience because of his contributions to the field. But Cajal had career aspirations not as a scientist, but as an artist. Over the course of his career, Cajal produced over 3,000 hand-drawn studies of the brain, many of which are still used by neuroscientists today. His ability to draw accurately led to a critical advance in the field of neuroscience, that individual cells called neurons form the basis of our brains. Cajal went on to win the Nobel Prize for his work in 1906. Cajal's work has been described as, and I quote, "Aesthetically astonishing and scientifically significant." It's intriguing to note that his work is still useful to scientists today, while also traveling the world as art exhibitions. A key advance in science was made because of one person's artistic abilities. This isn't an isolated example either. Consider John Audubon's painting of birds. His goal was to paint every bird in America. Here's an example of one of his paintings. This is a Belted Kingfisher. Some of his paintings actually captured birds that have since gone extinct, like the Passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet. The early biologists or naturalists needed to be able to quickly and accurately draw interesting organisms in the field and cameras were not readily available or available at all. Even now in the age of cheap photography, cameras fail. There's also something to be said for the power of art as a communication tool, but we'll come back to that later in this module. Fundamentally, explorations of the natural world were based on the ability to draw quickly and accurately in the field. Developmental biology, which we'll explore more later in this course, also relies on referencing hand-drawn images. During the development of an organism from a single cell to a fully formed individual, there are various stages that that organism passes through. This led to the creation of standardized stages that scientists can use and refer to when describing, comparing or situating their results. For example, the Kimmel drawings are used for staging zebrafish embryos, and the Nieuwkoop and Faber drawings are used for staging Xenopus laevis or African clawed frog embryos. What's really fascinating is that hand-drawn images of the embryos is still providing new insight into biological research, even when high-quality microscopic imaging is available. For instance, in 2017, a new set of Xenopus drawings were produced. Researchers realized that in the original new coop and favorite drawings in the 1960s, the images from the front of the face were missing and standardized staging was needed to yield a property articulate in Scituate studies on craniofacial development. So the development of the face. Studying craniofacial development is important because this is a common area for mistakes to happen during development leading to birth defects. During the generation of these new images, the team noticed new insights into how facial structures developed. Yet again, art influenced the progress of science. We've explored three different ways in which fine art influenced and contributed to biology. First, we talked about the Kimmel neuron drawings then the Audubon paintings, and finally, how hand drawings memory has contributed to the field of developmental biology. These drawings appeal to us, not just because they've advanced science, but because they are aesthetically beautiful and appealing. Now, let's turn to our next subject, how biology's art can be used for science communication and also for education.
