RamцЁn y Cajal (Ramon y Cajal), Santiago

May 1, 1852, Mr.. - October 18, 1934
Neyroanatom and Spanish histologist Santiago RamцЁn y Cajal was born in Pentilla de Aragon, a village in the south of the Pyrenees, in the family of Antonia and Dzhyusto RamцЁn Kasasus. His father, a poor barber, having decided to become a doctor, moved the family to Zaragoza, where the boy was 5 years old. The young Santiago manifested obvious talent of the artist, that in the future was of great significance in his scientific career, but his father insisted that he had acquired the medical profession. In college, 'Fathers of medicine' and the Institute Hyueska R.-and-K. could not obey the strict discipline and began skipping classes. His father gave the wayward young man, first on teaching to the barber and then to a cobbler. Make sure that these specialties they mastered, the father of her son rejoiced change of attitude to business and began to teach his anatomy. At age 16, AR-and-K. enrolled in the University of Zaragoza, where his father was a professor of applied anatomy.
After graduating in 1873,. R.-and-K. was called up for military service in the infantry as a surgeon. Sent to Cuba, where there is an uprising, he was sick with malaria, he was demobilized and returned to the anatomical school of University of Zaragoza for research in order to protect his doctoral dissertation in medicine. In 1879, Mr.. He received his PhD and was appointed director of the university of the anatomical museum. Weakened by recurring bouts of malaria he contracted tuberculosis, for many months had to be treated, and a year later fully recovered.
. Medical education in Saragossa was so superficial, that first look through a microscope he had succeeded only in taking the exam on histology in Madrid
. Stunned by what he saw, he found in the University of Zaragoza unusual antique instrument and began to independently study the structure of tissues with a microscope. This led to his first scientific book, which dealt with inflammation of the mesentery, cornea and cartilage, which was equipped with a lithography patterns. Numerous subsequent publications, and RR-K. in cell biology and microscopy proved to be extremely interesting, t. to. were well illustrated.
In 1883, Mr.. R.-and-K. was appointed head of the department of comparative anatomy at the University of Valencia. He continued to write and illustrate a book on the histology and pathology, which were printed at his expense, because Spain was too isolated from the mainstream of European science in order to finance such publications. Since foreign periodicals were scarce or unavailable, R.-and-K. was forced to examine histology and microscopy alone. He studied one tissue to another, thinking to do the nervous tissue in the least because of its complexity.
In 1886. One Madrid neurologist showed him the method using silver nitrate for the color of the nervous tissue, developed by Camillo Golgi. Visible under the microscope preparations is striking how the clarity. 'Everything was exactly as on the sketch, performed Chinese ink on Japanese paper - said the latest RV-and-K. - And to think that it was the same fabric, which, under color of carmine or hematoxylin appeared before the eye in the form of tangled thickets. Here, on the contrary, everything was clear and understandable, as the diagram. Stunned, I could not tear myself away from the microscope '.
The following year, R.-and-K. became head of the Department of Normal and Pathological Histology, University of Barcelona, where he began to improve the method of Golgi, trying to eliminate possible accident. These improvements, together with the artist's talent allowed him to publish more detailed and accurate descriptions of the structures of individual neurons, which previously could not see anyone.
. With the development of new methods of dyeing and comprehension of parts of the nervous system, which researchers have previously ignored, R.-and-K
. received new information concerning the structure and functions of the nervous system. By that time, when most neuroscientists believed that the nerve fibers form a network in which individual cells are interconnected, the Golgi remained a leading advocate of 'reticular theory'. Now R.-and-K. could trace the path of the fibers to a specific nerve cell. He found that, although the fibers from different cells are in close proximity to each other, they do not merge, but have a free end. This discovery enabled him to become chief conductor of 'neuron doctrine', the theory that the nervous system consists of numerous individual cells, but not a single network.
Neural theory has been widely recognized, t. to. successfully applied in neurophysiology. Charles C. Sherrington (with whom R.-and-K. met in 1886, . when he studied the cholera epidemic in Spain) realized, . he can describe the reflex action, . assuming, . that there is a separate motor and sensory neurons with different functions, . interact at certain points, . or synapses (structures, . to transfer between branches of two neighboring neurons).,
. Individual nerve cells always have a few units to several hundreds of waste fibers, known as dendrites
. Since the beginning of 1860-ies. it was known that one of the nerve fibers - axon - is different from the others, being longer, thicker and covered with a layer of material, consisting of lipid and protein components and called myelin. Most neuroanatomy believed that the structural differences between the dendrites and axons and also point to functional differences. When the R.-and-K. studied the neurons of visual and olfactory analyzers, I noticed that all the dendrites are located on one side of the cell and sent to the external environment, while all the axons are oriented toward the brain. These results enabled him in 1891, Mr.. introduce the notion of scientific revolution of the principle of dynamic polarization, according to which the nerve impulses coming into the cell along the dendrites (or directly to the cell body), but only out of the neuron along the axon.
Academic reputation of R.-and-K. grew rapidly, both in Spain and abroad. In 1892, at age 40, he was appointed Professor of Histology and Pathological Anatomy University of Madrid, where he worked nearly a third of a century. His major works were published in the Spanish language, known only to a few foreign scientists, but the R.-and-K. often published in other languages, especially French. Although they were written nearly 20 books and 250 scientific articles, he believed that only a small fraction was delivered by scientists outside of Spain. He never ceased to be indignant about the isolation felt by a result, he believed, ignoring the foreign experts of his own native language.
R.-and-K. and Golgi shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1906. 'for work on the structure of the nervous system'. In his speech at the presentation to. Merner of the Karolinska Institute, welcomed the two scientists' as the main representatives and leaders of modern neuroscience. "
In 1904. R.-and-K. summarized his research in his book 'The nervous system of human and vertebrates' ( "The Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates"). In addition to discussing issues relating to neural doctrine, functions of the axon and dendrites, the author described in the book structure and organization of cells in different areas of the brain. This cytoarchitectonics (descriptions of cell structure and arrangement of nerve cells in the tissue) is still the basis for the study of cerebral localization - definition of specialized functions of different regions of the brain.
. In subsequent years, R.-and-K
. do research degeneration of nerves and their recovery, but, being a leading scholar of Spain, also took an active part in public life science. He gained fame as a popular lecturer. 'Conversations in a cafe' and 'the world as it is seen in eighty: impressions arteriosklerotika' ( "Conversations at the Cafe" and "The World as Seen at Eighty: Impressions of an Arteriosclerotic") present a collection of his clever, often sad aphorisms. 'The saddest thing in old age that her future is already spare', - said R.-and-K. He also noted that, 'while the brain is still space, mystery, people will not stop beating on her clue'.
The most significant work of R.-and-K. recent years they were opening in 1913. staining nervous tissue using gold. These studies contributed to the emergence of our modern ideas about the structure of tumors of the central nervous system.
In 1880, Mr.. R.-and-K. married Silveria Fananas Garcia; they had four sons and four daughters. Not very tall, with a swarthy complexion, R.-and-K. perceived by some people reclusive or shy person. 'He was a bright person with surprisingly expressive expressive and beautiful eyes, - recalled in a biographical memoir, Charles C. Sherrington. - Deep and dark, they lit or darkened, depending on his mood changes'. A talented amateur photographer, R.-and-K. passionately interested in chess and. He died Oct. 18, 1934, Mr.. aged 82. After his death, the Spanish Government has issued all of his works, issued, stamps and banknotes, with his image, and in a park in Madrid, he was a monument.
Numerous awards and AR-K. include premium Fovella the Biological Society of Paris (1896), Prize of the Moscow International Medical Congress (1900) and the Helmholtz Medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1905). He received honors at Cambridge University, University Vereburga, Clark and many others. R.-and-K. - A member of numerous professional societies, as well as the National Academy of Sciences of Lima, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of London and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences