Branching Blue Electric Neurons Life crackles into existence in this sequence of images collected by Andrew Moore, a researcher and microscopist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus. Moore collected this hour-long sequence of a rat hippocampal neuron growing on a glass plate for his doctorate work. What this GIF shows is called neurite outgrowth. According to Moore, “this cell is in the middle of deciding which of its neurites (a general term for the long extensions from the cell body) will become dendrites and which will become the axon.” - Scientific American #science #gifs #photography #neurons #life