Andrea Strazzoni discovers the oldest depiction of a bee's brain

Andrea Strazzoni, a historian of science specialising in the 17th and 18th centuries and a member of the Gotha Research Centre, has written extensively on Dutch intellectuals of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has analysed Swammerdam's detailed drawing of the bee's brain, and his latest publication in the Royal Society Journal of the History and Science sheds light on it.

Swammerdam was a pupil of Franciscus Sylvius, a pioneer of human anatomy. Under Sylvius's tutelage, Swammerdam not only studied the function of human organs, but also a wide range of creatures, from frogs to snails and lice. However, his work on the bee brain was particularly remarkable, as he achieved a level of precision with the simplest of means that would not be equalled until the introduction of micro-photography in the 19th century. Based on his knowledge of the human and other mammalian brains, he initially misinterpreted structures as the pineal gland and cerebellum, but later corrected his view.  

Strazzoni shows how Swammerdam's meticulous observations and drawings enabled scientific knowledge, demonstrating the importance of illustration in research. 

Find more about Andrea Strazzoni's research:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2024.0028

https://www.mareonline.nl/en/science/what-makes-the-first-drawn-bee-brain-so-special/