Synapse Web http://synapses.bu.edu/

If you want to know how, you must pay a visit to Synapse Web, a fabulous web site of the Laboratory of Synapse Structure and Function at Boston University. Here, you will find information on the ultrastructure of the nervous system at all levels, with a particular emphasis on synapses.

Synapse Web includes introductory information on brain anatomy, and on the structure of dendrites, axons, astrocytes and synapses. It also includes brief accounts of some of the classical microscopic methods that are commonly used in structural studies. This section, which is illustrated by some simple animations, is poised to grow to include descriptions of more recently developed anatomical techniques.

The site also hosts an extraordinary Atlas of Ultrastructural Neurocytology by Josef Spacek, a reference resource in which you can find ultrastructural descriptions not only of neurons and glia, but also of blood vessels, the meninges and the diseased brain.

Last, for those researchers whose work draws heavily on neuroanatomical methods, Synapse Web hosts a collection of software tools to address the challenge of “how to visualize something really small”. These tools are intended for the analysis and reconstruction of three-dimensional images from serial sections, and the web-site creators have shown, with some elegant examples, how such tools can be put to good use.

Synapse Web is supported by the Human Brain Project as part of their efforts to stimulate the development of neuroscience databases. This web site is a great initiative that will undoubtedly continue to mature, but it already deserves recognition and appreciation by the community.