He later became the first Spaniard to win a Nobel Prize for Science. This biography profiles his childhood, life, research, achievements and timeline. The shuttle also carried what NASA researcher Kerry Walton termed “the first historically important scientific artifacts to be flown in space” — the original glass microscope slides and drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, a scientific pioneer who changed the world of neuroscience in 1889. Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a famous Spanish pathologist, neuroscientist and histologist. Meticulous hand drawings of neurons by scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal led to the birth of modern neuroscience. During his childhood, Santiago Ramón y Cajal stood out for his intellect and his ability to learn quickly. Brain Bytes showcase essential facts about neuroscience. Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born May 1, 1852 in Petilla de Aragón, a poor village in northern Spain. Growing up, Cajal had a passion for drawing and dreamed of becoming an artist. Biography of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Spanish scientist, whose research and discoveries in the field of Histology, merited numerous awards, including the Prize of Moscow (1900), and the Nobel Prize for Medicine (1906). That notion was dashed by Spanish doctor Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Birth and Childhood. “I had an irresistible mania for scribbling on paper,” he wrote in his autobiography. He was the first to report with precision the fine anatomy of the nervous system. Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Ramon y Cajal, old octogenarian, recalls his life from his house on Alfonso XII Street, where he lived his later years. Even without modern photography, Ramón y Cajal … He refined a way to stain just one or two neurons black — a method originally developed by a champion of the smooth network theory, Camillo Golgi. Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born in 1852 in Petilla de Aragón, a small farming village in northeastern Spain. He was a curious and restless child who was fascinated by nature. Santiago Ramón y Cajal (May 1, 1852 – October 17, 1934) was a Spanish physician and scientist considered to be the founder of modern neurobiology (Sotelo, 2003).