Believe it or not I have a degree in Neuroscience. That sounds like a joke, especially given that I work in a crappy office for close to the minimum wage. But there it is, that’s my life, I spent too much time and money losing my mind rather than studying it, and here I am 11 years on in abject poverty. But hey ho, there we go.
I still kept my interest in the majestic organ that is the brain though. You have more connections in your noggin than there are stars in the sky. Put that in your bong and smoke it. Neuroscientists therefore have a bit of a tricky job trying to work out where each of the little pathways go. If you cut a tiny slither of brain up and stain it in the old fashioned way it looks like the picture below of a healthy cow brain:
Very pretty, but basically just splodges. Then a bloke called Golgi worked out a way of staining the tissue so you could see just a few of each of the cells so you got a clearer picture, but it’s still tricky to see what’s going where. Like so:
But then a team of ultra impressive chaps worked out a way of making each of the mini pipes stain a different colour and called it a “Brainbow“. I read a bit about how it works but my brain started fizzing and dribbling from my nose and ears so I stopped reading. It involves some sort of genetic targeting shizzle. I don’t know. I’ve started feeling giddy again, need to stop thinking about it. Read the deep deets here if you are braver than I. But the important thing for this article is that the pictures are fucking great. Enjoy yourself:
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