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  • Book extract

The shape of thought

Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s description of the moment in 1887 when he saw a brain cell for the first time never fails to move neuroscientist Richard Wingate to tears. Here he captures that enduring sense of wonder.

  • Article

A quick guide to drugs, the brain and brain chemistry

Discover some of the major chemicals that govern activity in our brains, how they work, and why certain drugs have the effects they do.

  • Article

The anatomy of a brain dissection

Dissecting the brain after death not only helps confirm a diagnosis, but it can also teach us so much more about the symptoms and causes of brain diseases and how to treat them.

  • Article

Jim, the horse of death

Horses’ blood was used to produce an antitoxin that saved thousands of children from dying from diphtheria, but contamination was a deadly problem. Find out how a horse called Jim was the catalyst for the beginnings of medical regulation.

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Images

  • Smooth ER, cell membrane and nucleus
  • Yeast cell plasma membrane, Freeze fracture and etching TEM
  • Polarisation of embryonic cell membranes
  • TEM - mitochondria and cell membranes
  • TEM - mitochondrion and cell membranes
  • Yeast cells plasma membrane, Freeze fracture and etching TEM
  • Chloroplasts in a plant cell, in this case a spinach leaf. Inside the chloroplasts, the stacks of thylakoid membranes are where the action takes place. The dark spots are starch granules. In close proximity are the mitochondria, with curved membranes, and the endothelial reticulum. This system of membranes navigates between the energy producing organelles until it reaches the nucleus, where it also forms the nuclear membranes.
  • Drawing of the 1918 Influenza: Main bronchus of a set of influenza lungs in the Museum at Guy's Hospital. Showing congestion of vessels and infiltration of round cells, thickening of membrane.
  • Myelination in sciatic nerve.
  • Lung cancer cell. This image shows a single cell grown from a culture of lung epithelial carcinoma (cancer) cells. The purple area shows blebbing.
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Catalogue

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