the.com/neuron
a cell that fires lightning to think the very thought of itself.
means A specialized cell of the nervous system that transmits electrical and chemical signals, the basic unit of the brain and nerves.
from From the Greek 'neuron,' which originally meant 'sinew' or 'cord' — the tough, stringy fibers of the body. Ancient anatomists, seeing nerves as pale threads running through flesh, borrowed the same word, and the modern sense of the nerve cell crystallized in the late 19th century as microscopes finally revealed the cell itself. So 'neuron' still carries the old sense of a thread or string — fitting for something that wires thought together.
- top speed
- signals travel up to 268 miles per hour
- longest reach
- some span from spine to big toe
- never divides
- most you'll ever have, you were born with
- social
- each links to thousands of others
- power draw
- the brain runs on about 20 watts
purkinje cell — largest neuron in cerebellum, up to 0.1mm in diameter, discovered by jan evangelista purkyně in 1837
giant squid axon — up to 1mm diameter, used in breakthrough 1952 hodgkin-huxley experiments on electrical signaling
motor neuron soma — anterior horn cell in spinal cord, controls voluntary muscle contraction, damaged in als disease