Neuroscience + Art
        The human brain has been a point of interest for many scientist dating back to 170 BC. With little technology, these scientists would easily hit a dead end and give up, but the curiosity never stopped. Important discoveries and ideas such as Rene Descartes’ concept of the brain controlling the body in 1649 allowed other scientist to keep pushing forward. Years later in 1929, the invention of the EEG, a device that measures electrical current in the brain by Hans Berger propelled the research towards the same direction. As brain research continues so does technology and together they broke through previous dead ends. What surprisingly followed neuroscience was the emergence of art this field created. After reviewing Victoria Vesnas lectures, ted talks, and provided articles I don’t believe this was intentional but an accidental birth of neuroscience art. Santiago Ramon y Cajal was a Spanish neuroscientist and an artist who created art pieces after what he believes he saw in neuron signals that resembles butterflies. He called them “mysterious butterflies of the soul”. Below is a drawings by Ramon y Cajal that is still published in current science textbooks.
 

 This original art was created in the early 1900s, and this is a great example of the “Two Cultures” by C.P. Snow, because Roman y Cajal was a pioneer in the neuroscience field with a passion of art which he created based off his work.
        In recent art, Jeff Litchman, Jean Livet, and Joshua Sanes have used the same technique we covered last week in Biotech+Art, where scientist are using genes that turn neurons into fluorescent colors, but this time they are inserting them in the human brain. This work/art is called the “Brainbow”. Below are two photographs of the fluorescent gene in the human brain.
 


 It is artistically pleasing as the color covers over 90 different shades of cyan, red, and yellow, and it helps scientist map the brain like never before. Jeff Litchman has stated that our brain cells are living organisms all competing for resources. New information has been developing and possibly answering questions that have been ask centuries ago. There is still a huge portion of the brain we do not understand, but with the help of technology and ambitious scientist, they may soon find out how powerful our brains really are.

REFERENCES:
Dlende. "Jeff Lichtman’s Brainbows." Neuroanthropology. N.p., 08 Oct. 2008. Web. 20 May 2017.
Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. "Neuroculture." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10.11 (2009): 815-21. Web.
Jung, Carl. “The Spiritual Problems of Modern Man.” n.p. Accessed 20 May, 2017.
Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt1.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 14 May 2017.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI>
Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt2.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 14 May 2017.
<https://youtu.be/TFv4owX3MZo>

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