Randomness, the lack of a definite pattern or predictability, is usually undesirable in scientific inquiries. Often it poses a nuisance to be overcome by repeated measurements and statistical analysis; in some cases (e.g., at atomic and subatomic scales governed by quantum mechanics), it is an essential property of the system, setting an insurmountable limit to the predictive power of our theory. Nevertheless, randomness in the genetic machinery of neurons has been ingeniously exploited with stunning effects.

Two kinds of events evade the naked eye: those happening too slowly to be noticeable, and those happening too fast to be discerned. While a natural process usually cannot be accelerated for observation, technology has enabled people to catch the moment when a fast process occurs and record it as impressive images.

Scientific images usually have a clear distinction between the object of interest and the background. Classical painting adopts a similar perspective between the foreground and the background. However, such distinctions are in a sense artificial, as they depend on where the viewer’s attention is accorded.

Life unfolds as a continuum of events in time. A single snapshot, be it a photo, a painting, or a sculpture, may capture a particular event vividly, but it is not straightforward to render a dynamic process in a single image. Both neuroscientists and artists have devised special techniques to crystalize a prolonged process into a single picture.

A sophisticated masterpiece is never made overnight. It takes shape in a long process of adding new materials, removing undesired ones, or both. The same principle applies to artworks and to the maturation of the nervous system.

Reality has many facets.  It is almost a self-evident truth in the world of arts, as each artist can choose to depict the same object from his or her unique viewpoint.  Less appreciated is the fact that a scientific image also represents an aspect of the object that interests the investigator, rather than what the object “really looks like.”