Below is a QuickTime movie we have made that we refer to as "Life and Death in the Nervous System.” In the first half of the movie neurons with their associated axons and dendrites are bluish-tan. The moving red impulses represent nerve impulse conduction. The long vertical red structure is a blood vessel, the yellowish cells that are wrapped around the blood vessel and axons are astrocytes and the water-like textured cells are oligodendrocytes. These cells extend their plasma membrane in an arm-like fashion to form nodes of myelin along the length of the axons. In the second half of the movie the myelinated nerve fiber is being attacked by a microglial cell. When the myelin is destroyed nerve impulse conduction is slowed dramatically. There is sound with the movie.