When1: 1937
When2: 1952
Who: Alan Hodgkin [Hodgkin, Alan]/Andrew F. Huxley [Huxley, Andrew F.]
What: biochemist
Where: England
works\ Currents carried by sodium and potassium ions [1952]
Detail: Hodgkin lived 1914 to 1998. Huxley lived 1917 to ?. They used squid giant axons to prove that ions flow across membrane rather than down axon {local circuit hypothesis, Hodgkin}, by locally increasing and decreasing extracellular-fluid conductivity [1937]. Sodium ions have ion channels, and potassium ions have separate ion channels. During action potentials, membranes are first more permeable to sodium ions, flowing in, and then potassium ions, flowing out, so potential becomes negative {Hodgkin-Huxley theory} [1952].
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Date Modified: 2022.0224