Santiago Saw Things Differently: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Artist, Doctor, Father of Neuroscience

Born in Spain, Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) was the son of a doctor who wanted him to be one, too. But the boy, an artist at heart, was regularly locked into rooms for drawing in his schoolbooks. When he and his father slipped into a graveyard at night to study bones, he discovered one place where art intersects with medicine: “He saw the human body as a work of art.” Obtaining a microscope, he began to draw nerve fibers in the brain, his drafting ability allowing him to follow intricate networks of what looked like “trunks, branches, and leaves.” But they never grow together, he realized; instead, they transmit messages across the gaps between them. For his work demystifying the nervous system, he won the Nobel Prize. Iverson writes with delicacy, evoking childhood moments that were formative for Santiago: “The room was lit by a wisp of light... just enough light for drawing.” Illustrations in an antiqued palette of coppers and grays by Lozano (Mayhem at the Museum) have a stylized cartoon quality, portraying the young protagonist as doll-like with an upturned nose. Several of Cajal’s original drawings are included; back matter concludes. Ages 5–9. (Nov.)