What did Santiago Ramon y Cajal discover about nerve cells?

Santiago Ramon y Cajal is famously known for his significant contributions to neuroscience, particularly his development of the neuron doctrine. This doctrine established that the nervous system is composed of individual cells, which are now recognized as neurons. His discoveries demonstrated that nerve cells are not simply continuous tubes or a syncytium, as was previously thought, but rather discrete entities that communicate with one another at specialized junctions known as synapses. This understanding was groundbreaking because it highlighted the structural and functional independence of nerve cells, fundamentally changing the way scientists viewed the organization of the nervous system. Cajal's meticulous observations and drawings of neural structures helped to affirm that neurons are separate and distinct units, making the assertion that nerves are sequences of discrete cells not just accurate, but central to modern neuroscience.