Perched on the edge of her seat, Elles Raaijmakers is enthusing about Santiago Ramón y Cajal – “perhaps the most wonderful story in the history of neurobiology” – an outsider who went on to become ‘the father of neuroscience’. To find out exactly why Raaijmakers was researching electrical currents and brain cells, she delved into the history of brain research. She found herself reading numerous familiar stories. She was particularly buoyed to learn that even for the big names in the field success didn't come automatically.

“It can sometimes seem as if they had a flash of inspiration, did some experiments and immediately came up with an innovative theory. But nothing could be further from the truth. I found evidence of long roads traveled, with struggles along the way. Such was the experience of Andrew Huxley and Alan Hodgkin, who ultimately received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their model describing the action potential. Their journey started with years of trial and error, making discoveries they couldn't explain, working alongside colleagues in the field who didn't understand their out-of-the-box thinking. Still, despite all this, they persevered and finally their efforts paid off. And that gave me hope. There's no rule that says that if you're struggling you have to throw in the towel. I like to give students this message instead of skirting the issue.”

Control

Raaijmakers is speaking from experience: the road to her doctorate was a bumpy one, to put it mildly. “Usually, as a recent graduate, you throw yourself wholeheartedly into your project, anything seems possible. Gradually, however, you realize that plucking what your supervisor calls ‘low-hanging fruit’ isn't the simple matter it's made out to be. And the focus on success and achievement is extraordinarily sharp. You're dependent on people around you, and might even find yourself swept along in a direction that, once you stop and look, you realize isn't where you want to go at all. I felt I had lost control of my research. A new team of supervisors gave me the chance to get back in the driving seat, and so now I can honestly say this is my thesis.”

Coping mechanism

To cope with her struggles, Raaijmakers found it helpful to draw cartoons. She has been an avid user of pencil and paper since her high school years; for years she produced a weekly cartoon strip for Cursor. During the long train journeys – she carried out some of her experiments at the University of Amsterdam; her project was a collaboration between the two universities – she drew in order to vent both her frustration and her inspiration. But increasingly she found her doodles were helping her to answer a question: why I am doing these experiments ?

“The chance to join the Education Team arose fairly early on in my doctorate studies. I seized the opportunity: I'm really excited by the combination of research and education. For a number of years I was a teaching assistant – that brings home the importance of conveying knowledge effectively like nothing else does. I noticed that often too little attention is paid to the ‘why’ of research, yet this can be what helps people connect with it. To use the words of Ionica Smeets (professor of Science Communication and Society at Leiden University and well known for her popular-science columns, ed.), of whom I am a big fan: science communication is still too often a monologue, we need to be conversing more with one another.”

Comic book

Raaijmakers decided to present her traditional public summary in the form of a comic strip, and to give it to her audience as a separate booklet. By offering a glimpse into the history of neuroscience – including the inevitable failures – she hopes to clarify the context of her own modest contribution. What exactly happens in a single brain cell when the brain is stimulated? The Romans, we learn from her comic book, were already using this technique: an electric ray would be placed against the head of a patient with a severe headache. The electric shocks administered by the fish were believed to ease the pain. “There are many myths related to brain stimulation and, yes, you'll also come across Frankenstein in my story,” says Raaijmakers, laughing.