The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

To define an internal milieu is to define its edge—a place where the inside ends, and the outside begins.

like ancient, conjoined enemies, we’ve been defined by each other.

The Brain—is wider than the Sky— For—put them side by side— The one the other will contain With ease—and you—beside— The Brain is deeper than the sea— For—hold them—Blue to Blue— The one the other will absorb— As sponges—Buckets—do— —Emily Dickinson, c. 1862

To see his drawings of neurons is to realize how much can be learned by just seeing. It is to return to characters such as Da Vinci or Vesalius who imagined drawing as thinking: an astute observer and draftsman could generate a scientific theory as much as an experimental interventionist.

to “draw” is not merely to illustrate, but to extract a substance, to pull out a truth.