Mother + Child MRI Print (created by Rebecca Saxe)

An MRI image of Rebecca Saxe with her infant son. Image: Rebecca Saxe and Atsushi Takahashi / Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT / Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT)

Mother and Child

Anne Trafton |

Mother + Child MRI Print (created by Rebecca Saxe)
An MRI image of Rebecca Saxe with her infant son. Image: Rebecca Saxe and Atsushi Takahashi / Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT / Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT)

“The Mother and Child is a powerful symbol of love and innocence, beauty and fertility. Although these maternal values, and the women who embody them, may be venerated, they are usually viewed in opposition to other values: inquiry and intellect, progress and power. But I am a neuroscientist, and I worked to create this image; and I am also the mother in it, curled up inside the tube with my infant son.” — Rebecca Saxe

This image appeared in the 2015 issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

From neurons to learning and memory

A new computational technique could make it easier to engineer useful proteins

Reevaluating an approach to functional brain imaging

See all news