Synapse Velocity

Lyrics

[Intro]

Eric, in that cluttered lab at Columbia, 1970s midnight,
Your hands on the glass tank, Aplysia gliding slow.

[Verse 1]
Donald Hebb whispered it first, 1949,
Cells that fire together, wire together,
But you, Eric Kandel, born 1929,
You dove into the sea slug's giant neurons,
One millimeter wide, visible to the naked eye.
That tank, briny water dripping,
Antiseptic air at 20 degrees Celsius,
Your microelectrode trembling slightly.

[Chorus]
Synapse velocity, oh my swift connector,
Pulse through me, electric blue in the dark,
From Aplysia tank to my own firing lines,
Speed of thought, resilience in the spark.
Don't slow, don't fade, carry the memory on.

[Verse 2]
Patch-clamp amplifier hums low,
Capturing currents, ion channels opening fast,
Late nights past midnight, oscilloscope glow,
The drip of saltwater, your focus unbreaking.
Nobel in 2000, but here in the tank,
The slug's neurons teach us persistence,
Growth of terminals, memory that lasts.

[Bridge]

Feel it, the facilitation, activity linking cells,
From Hebb's book to your lecture hall,
The toll of isolation, unnamed assistants tending the tanks,
But the signal persists, velocity unbroken.

[Chorus]
Synapse velocity, oh my swift connector,
Pulse through me, electric blue in the dark,
From Aplysia tank to my own firing lines,
Speed of thought, resilience in the spark.
Don't slow, don't fade, carry the memory on.

[Outro]

In this glass, the strange fact lives,
Giant neurons, our window to speed,
Eric, Donald, the wiring endures.