To my surprise, I recently learned that Hermann von #Helmholtz’s 1842 dissertation was not about #physics, but about the #NervousSystem. It was an anatomical study of invertebrate nervous systems, written at a time when the conceptual distinction between #neurons and #glia did not yet exist.
I wrote a short blog post about this fascinating early contribution to #neuroscience:
🌍 https://www.fabriziomusacchio.com/blog/2026-05-09-helmholtz_dissertation/
Reading the dissertation was fascinating because it reveals a side of #Helmholtz that is rarely discussed today. Long before his work on #EnergyConservation, #electrodynamics, and #WavePhysics, he was already deeply engaged with #anatomical and #biological questions.
It also shows that some core ideas about the comparative structure of nervous systems were already being articulated in the early 19th century.
Always striking to see how multi-faceted some of the great scientists of the past were ( #Gauss, #Faraday, #Maxwell, #Newton, #Somerville, #Lovelace etc.). The boundaries between disciplines were much more fluid back then, and the same person could contribute to multiple fields, even though they might be remembered for only one today.
#Neuroscience #Physics #ComputerScience #Mathematics #Biology #Astronomy #Geophysics #ScienceHistory
And btw, Helmholtz’s translated dissertation is freely available online under a Creative Commons license, thanks to Julia Heideklang, H.-J. Pflüger, and Helmut Kettenmann, who made this early work accessible again by translating it from Latin into English and German:
🌍 https://www.helmholtz.de/ueber-uns/wer-wir-sind/geschichte/helmholtz-dissertation/
📕 https://www.helmholtz.de/fileadmin/user_upload/03_ueber_uns/hermann_von_helmholtz/Helmholtz_Dissertation_wbg_Academic_CC_BY_SA.pdf
Máté Varga
Fabrizio Musacchio
Orrock LXXXVI XLVII
Three plus or minus five