Nerve impulses Squid giant axon Reactions Commentary

Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley neuroscience

Nerve impulses

• Neuron transmit signals along their axons
• farther and faster than theories could explain.
• Hodgkin and Huxley made their own equipment
• to test the giant axon of the squid
• and found the electrical signal is transmitted
• by a wave-like exchange of sodium and potassium ions
• but the signal doesn’t travel through the core;
• it travels along the surface membrane.

Squid giant axon

• The bigger the axon
• the faster it works.
• The axon of Atlantic squid,
• controlling its water-jet propulsion,
• evolved to increase
• its chance of escaping predators.

Reactions

• Knee-jerk reactions
• save effort.
• At least imitate
• people you look up to.
• Sports and war
• breed snap decisions,
• but violence
• is a poor long-term plan.
• Standing on dry land
• you might seem as dumb as a fish.
• The context
• makes the difference.