*Portraits of European Neuroscientists*, <http://neuroportraits.eu/> by Nicholas Wade, Marco Piccolino, and Adrian Simmons

There is so much information on the internet that it is tempting to believe that books will soon be outdated. According to some, if you need information, the internet is the place to be. Yet rarely do I end up on a website that impresses me, or one that I find useful. For teaching, I still mostly rely on the books in my shelf.

However, there is good news for those of us who teach, their students, and those who want to know about the history of neuroscience: there is a great new source of interesting and trustworthy information on the internet. Vision scientist and *i*-Perception editorial board member [Nick Wade](http://www.dundee.ac.uk/psychology/people/academics/njwade/), Italian scientist [Marco Piccolino](http://utenti.unife.it/marco.piccolino/page/), and web designer [Adrian Simmons](http://perlucida.com) have teamed up and published an excellent overview of the key players in the history of neuroscience on the World Wide Web.

One can only speculate on the incentive to undertake such an endeavour. So why not ask Nick Wade directly! He replied soon after: "The project started when I was talking to a meeting of post-docs near Tübingen a couple of years ago. I asked many of them when they last were in a library and the most recent was 3 months! It wasn\'t that they were lazy but they just assumed that everything would be available on the web. So I decided that one way to engage the interests of students and teachers in history is to make the material accessible on the web, with web links to related material, both of books and biographies. \[...\]I hope you have fun ferreting around the faces!"

And I did have fun *ferreting around*, and I am sure many others will enjoy this as well. More importantly, they will learn! The website is nicely set up. Time periods run from the 1400s until the 1900s (truth be told there is only one person in the 1900s, and so far nobody from the 2000s has made it). The scientific areas cover anatomy, brain (dys)functions, microanatomy, physiology and, of course, the senses. The topics and persons are well introduced and each description ends with links to (mostly) relevant websites for those that feel the urge to even more information. If relevant, there are also links in the text to other persons portrayed on their website.

Of course, neuroscience is very broad and one can surely see that the topics and persons reflect the initial interest of the authors. Some visitors to this site may be surprised that it focuses on European neuroscientists. But then again, isn\'t that the place where it all started? The initial part of this project was sponsored by FENS (the Federation for European Neurosciences) and rumour has it that the next phase is to be sponsored by the *Carnegie Foundation*. Carnegie was a Scot and for sure the next additions will focus on Scots who contributed to neuroscience. But Nick Wade also told me that the scope is broadening. Soon several philosophers that have stimulated thinking about brain function will be added. Without doubt, some of the icons that lived in other parts of the world will soon join. Nick Wade writes: "One of the delights of the enterprise is that it will be never ending, as there are many lacunae that require filling." This is obviously very true, but it means that there will be one issue to solve: the title of the current website is [Portraits of European Neuroscientists](http://neuroportraits.eu/).

Another good thing: Not only do the portraits have excellent resolution and can be imported into your presentation in a heartbeat, they are all pieces of art in themselves. The portraits are far from conventional: they are a convolution between the face itself and a reflection of the person\'s contribution. This invites the viewer to study the portraits in more detail and some could surely be considered a puzzle. This will ensure that the information will be better consolidated in memory as shown by Fergus Craik, another Scottish scientist, and his colleagues.

So, I can only highly recommend this rich source of information. It should be on the bookmarks toolbar of every scientist\'s browser. And if you are one of those who think "history is history, so why should I care", keep in mind what the American Philosopher George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Frans A J Verstraten

School of Psychology, University of Sydney & Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University
