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August 23, 2007

Old School Neurophysiology:

squidaxon.jpgThe Plymouth Marine Laboratory brings us footage of experiments on the giant axons of the squid --- the work that brought us the action potential. Quoting:

"The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber" was filmed in the 1970s at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England. This is the laboratory where Hodgkin and Huxley conducted experiments on the squid giant axon in the 1940s. Their experiments unraveled the mechanism of the action potential, and led to a Nobel Prize. Long out of print, the film is an historically important record of the voltage-clamp technique as developed by Hodgkin and Huxley, as well as an interesting glimpse at how the experiments were done. QuickTime video excerpts from the film are presented here.

Link: excerpts from The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber

(via Three-Toed Sloth)

—tom.

Posted at August 23, 2007 01:09 PM

Comments

Vaughan says:

Wow. I must have walked past Plymouth Marine Lab hundreds of times as a kid and never realised it was such an important part of history. Thanks for the link!

Comment posted at August 23, 2007 10:50 PM

Kat says:

Ah! I swear I'm going mad. The other picture I saw looked like a stadium with people, and now this one looks like a pen writing on a piece of paper. What's wrong with me. I see no squid! Where's the giant nerve fiber?

Comment posted at September 16, 2007 02:55 AM

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