Ragnar Arthur Granit conducted important research in two distinct areas of neurophysiology--during the first part of his career he researched the physiology of vision, while in the later years he studied muscle spindles and neural control over movement. Although he made significant contributions to both fields, it was for his investigations into the physiology of vision that Granit was best known. He clarified the process by which the retina of the eye first encodes information about form and color, then transmits it to the brain via the optic nerve.

Granit was born in Helsinki, Finland, the eldest son of Arthur W. Granit, a government forester, and Albertina Helena Malmberg Granit. Soon after his birth, the family started a forest-products business in Helsinki. Since both his parents were of Swedish origin, Granit attended the Swedish Normal School there. In 1918, Granit fought in Finland's war for independence from the Soviet...