er reductionism is really really difficult .....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... a technician named Eileen Southgate painstakingly labeled each nerve cell and connection in the micrographs. Through their work, they discovered C. elegans has 302 neurons that form approximately 10,000 connections. And Southgate traced each and every one. "I found out several years into her collaboration that as a hobby, she put huge jigsaw puzzles together," White recalled. "She has a wonderful visual memory." She began work at the lab when she was 16 years old and stayed until she retired.

thank you Eileen!

from this interesting piece

[amateur51]

Fascinating piece Calum and as you say thank you Eileen Southgate

Eileen Southgate's extraordinary brain and her dedication to the task reminded me of Jocelyn Bell Burnell who as a PhD student discovered the first pulsars (but of course it was her male supervisors who got the Nobel prize exclusively )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...nell-100-women