You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

A few weeks ago, my editor and I ventured down three stories below ground into the basement

of an unassuming building in Washington, D.C. We're heading to a new exhibit housed at

the Technology-Based Art Space Art Tech House.

So what we're looking at here is our main space gallery at Feather.

That's Art Tech House D.C. Sales Manager, Josh Feldman. He's our guide for this visit.

As we step foot through the installation, you are stepping foot into our brain.

Quite literally, we are walking into a projection of the human brain.

The main gallery space is illuminated by high definition laser projectors from the floor to the wall.

And as we roam the room, our bodies become an extension of the floor, another surface for the projections to shine on.

The focus of this exhibit is the brain, more specifically the nerve cells in our brains.

We wanted to tell the story of a neuron, a single neuron, in order to educate the public regarding the fact that the neuron is the essential element of the brain.

That's John Morrison, Professor of Neurology at the University of California Davis, and the lead neuroscientist for this new exhibit.

He tells me that everything we do is the result of about 86 billion neurons talking to one another.

From our senses, touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing, to how we interpret and understand our world.

The neuron is a cell that's specialized for communication.

All the circuits within the brain that process information are formed by neurons.

Today on the show, the life of a neuron, plus how the melting of research with art and technology pushes the boundaries of how we learn about the world and understand ourselves.

You're listening to shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.

The idea for this exhibit started a couple years ago when neuroscientist John Morrison had a concept in mind.

We decided to construct a three-dimensional neuron that you could experience, that you could walk through, but we didn't have a way to do it.

We just knew we wanted to do it.

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