1843-1926. Italian cell biologist who with
Santiago Ramon y Cajal produced the first
detailed knowledge of the fine structure of
the nervous system. Golgi's use of silver
salts in staining cells proved so effective
in showing up the components and fine
processes of nerve cells that even the
synapses - tiny gaps between the cells - were
visible. The Golgi body, a series of
flattened membranous cavities found in the
cytoplasm of cells, was first described by
him in 1898. Golgi and Ramon y Cajal shared
the 1906 Nobel Prize for Medicine.