Sir John C. EcclesDied 2 May 1997 at age 94 (born 27 Jan 1903). John Carew Eccles was an Australian physiologist who shared, (with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley) the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the chemical means by which impulses are communicated or repressed by nerve cells. He also showed how signals pass between nerves and muscles. A nerve cell that is switched on by receiving a signal passes a chemical on to the next cell in line. This chemical expands minute openings in cell membranes, allowing ions to flood inside, reversing the electrical charge of the cell. This activity is repeated along the chain of cells, permitting transmission of the original impulse through the body. Eccles observed living cells in action by planting exceptionally tiny electrodes in them. |
