From owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Tue Apr 8 04:32:17 2003 Return-Path: X-Original-To: biophys-outgoing Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with SMTP id 0F32D7D23D for ; Tue, 8 Apr 2003 04:32:17 +0100 (BST) X-Original-To: biophys-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 90AAF7D226 for ; Tue, 8 Apr 2003 04:32:16 +0100 (BST) Received: from niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (niobium [193.62.192.41]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADB707D23D for ; Tue, 8 Apr 2003 04:32:13 +0100 (BST) Received: (from news@localhost) by niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (8.11.6+Sun/8.8.8) id h383WCj23791 for biophys-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Tue, 8 Apr 2003 04:32:13 +0100 (BST) X-Authentication-Warning: niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk: news set sender to using -f Subject: Biophysics - a contradiction in terms? Electrochemistry vs. Neuroscience From: gokelly@calinet.com (Gregory C. O\'Kelly) X-Newsgroups: bionet.biophysics Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: NewsPortal 0.23 X-HTTP-Posting-Host: 63-237-171-113.calinet.com Organization: http://www.lawgenecentre.org/ X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: genetics.law.utas.edu.au Message-ID: <3e9242b4@newsroom.utas.edu.au> X-Original-Trace: 8 Apr 2003 13:32:04 +1000, genetics.law.utas.edu.au Lines: 19 Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 03:32:08 GMT To: biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sender: owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk One of the great and continuing failures of clinical medicine is in the area of neurology and neurophysiology. The historical roots for the continuation of this state of affairs are embedded in the story of the understanding of the phenomenon of electricity by the physical sciences, and the simultaneous insularity of the biological sciences to the understanding of the role and importance of the electron in organic chemistry and electrochemistry. This failure of cross-disciplinary pollination contributed to the ossification of thinking about the underlying causes for voltage changes in an action potential, and clouded the understanding of the nature of the nerve impulse as involving electrochemical impulses. Instead 'proton pumps' and the chemiosmotic hypothesis were conjured to account for energy transactions in the body. And this conjuring was so powerful it prevented researchers from noting that striated muscle, just like the liver and s mooth muscle, also had electrical synapses. If you would like to read a paper discussing the history and the analysis of the issues, there is available in pdf the paper "Electrochemistry and Neuroscience". Just email the author of this message requesting it. .