Deep inside the brain, a neuron prepares to transmit a signal to its target. To capture that expectant, fleeting moment with painstaking detail, science illustrator Graham Johnson based his elegant, highly accurate drawing on ultra-thin micrographs of sequential brain slices. The brain contains billions of neurons, whose network of chemical messages form the basis of all thought, movement and behavior. Johnsons illustration tells the story of one such signal, a synaptic millisecond that is both eye-catching and accurate in scale and shape.

Credit: Graham Johnson, Graham Johnson Medical Media