STM+Week+10

The Discovery of the Neuron. -Response. My final response for the semester revolved around the development of the theory of what the human brain was made out of. The article primarily covers the back and forth struggle between two competing theories. The first, “reticulum”, proposed that the brain was composed of a complex of tissue, creating one massive, but single, object. The second stated that the brain was made up of of innumerable individual cells, or neurons. Initially, the primitive microscopes of the day aided the reticularists point of view that everything was one solid mass, since the inaccurate tools could not detect the finite details needed to prove the neuron theory. Ironically, the success of the reticularists eventually proved to be their downfall. Joseph von Gerlach, a prominent reticularist, pushed the theory into greater popularity and he went on to develop a better method of staining samples, thus allowing finer details to be observed through the microscope. This advancement allowed later neuronists to prove that gray matter was not one single tissue, but instead a huge complex of individual cells all communicating without actually be connected directed. As microscopes advanced technologically, so did the scientific communities understanding of the mind. With each passing year clearer and clearer drawing of the individual cells were released and new methods of staining samples were developed, further allowing more details to be observed through the microscopes. It is amazing to see how two opposing groups of scientists, despite their contempt for each others' theories, end up developing new technologies and methods that eventually serve to help to opposite side gain the advantage. All in all, an interesting read into a area of science that I would normally have little to do with.