Free Web NovelChapter 979: Chapter 492 This is called good treatment for scientific research personnel!_1
The allure of the hairy crab aside for the moment, the researchers in the laboratory were still discussing the experimental direction for neural signal transmission.
Finding the right direction at the beginning of an experiment is extremely important, as the initial choice could determine just how ’far down the road’ one could go.
Zhao Yi supported Zhang Wei’s idea but felt that what Ai Lixin and Zhu Qi mentioned about conducting a large number of animal neural experiments to collect data amounted to a waste of funds with little significance, as he could pinpoint the key elements from a single experiment and did not need to do too many similar experiments.
At the same time, they also agreed on another direction, which was Li Ming’s suggestion, to study nerve cells.
Nerve cells have been studied countless times, and indeed, it is very difficult to get results from ordinary experiments, but the researchers at the Biomedical Research Institute are very proficient in studies related to cell mechanisms.
This is their expertise.
When undertaking a difficult research project, abandoning one’s area of expertise is not a good decision.
Even if the research on nerve cells yields no results, they could still obtain some data or characteristics of the nerve cells to compare with other experimental directions, thus providing certain reference value.
Conducting research in two directions at once is not an issue for Zhao Yi’s laboratory, as they have enough researchers and sufficient funding to pursue multidirectional research.
The research on nerve cells was entrusted to Li Ming and Ai Lixin, while Zhu Qi and Zhang Wei were responsible for replicating classic experiments.
Once the work assignments were made, they began their preparations.
Leaving aside the research on nerve cells for the moment, the reproduction of classic experiments in neural signal transmission did not start with ’hairy crabs.’ Their first step was to replicate the experiment of British scientists Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley from sixty years ago, which measured the changes in membrane potential when a signal passed through neural conduction.
The purpose of replicating the experiment was to see the discovery made by the two Nobel Prize winners, which is the influx of sodium ions into the cell membrane from the outside when a neuron is excited, followed by the efflux of potassium ions from the inside to the outside of the cell membrane, restoring the membrane potential to normal. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
This is the source of the classic Hodgkin-Huxley model.
Only after that would they conduct the ’hairy crab’ experiments, following the research path of Tanzaki Yijiro to study the leg nerves of the Chinese mitten crab and observe them under a microscope placed on small reflective platinum plates, then illuminating the plates with a laser beam.
By measuring the angle of reflection of the laser, they could detect whether the width of the nerve bundle changed slightly when an action potential passed through it.
This required precise operation and many repetitions of the experiment.
It is said that Tanzaki Yijiro and his doctoral students conducted hundreds of measurements and made detailed records before concluding that the nerve bundle widens slightly and then narrows during the passage of an action potential, with the changes occurring in just milliseconds.
When Tanzaki Yijiro conducted his research, technology was not as advanced as it is now, and the experimental equipment he used certainly cannot compare with today’s tools.
With the help of modern high-precision instruments, it is relatively easy to measure the exact timing of the reactions.
The primary goal of this experiment was to prove that there is a direct relationship between neural conduction and the cell membrane. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Tanzaki Yijiro’s report indicated that when a nerve is excited, the cell membrane deforms, rising by about a kilometer.
If the cell membrane deforms and facilitates neural signal transmission, it can largely explain that neural conduction relies not only on electrical signals but also potentially on mechanical waves, which are the only cause of vibrations.
Of course.
Tanzaki Yijiro did not receive much recognition, as many believed that the deformation of the cell membrane was a byproduct of the electrical signal.
But no matter what, the main problem had not been resolved.
What Zhao Yi’s laboratory is doing now is to replicate the two experiments that discovered neural transmission of electrical and mechanical signals, where they need to measure and record fine data for analysis in the experiment.
The two experiments described above don’t sound much like biomedical research and are more akin to physical experiments. Initially, no one paid much attention, but when the actual experimental design began, it was realized that replication was not so easy. The issues related to equipment and measuring tools could be resolved, but it would be best to have a professional physicist help out.
Everyone has their own field of expertise.
Biomedical researchers conducting physical experiments and measuring physical data will obviously not be as proficient.
Therefore, Zhao Yi decided to seek the help of a physicist, not necessarily an internationally leading experimental physicist, but even someone with knowledge of physical experiments would suffice.
Then he found Gao Yihua.
Gao Yihua was Teacher Gao, Zhao Yi’s physics teacher, and well-acquainted with Zhao Yi, but Gao Yihua’s primary focus was on educational work, and he did not have any notable achievements in physics research.
When Gao Yihua heard that Zhao Yi was asking for help with neural experiments, he was slightly bewildered, "Are you sure you haven’t approached the wrong person?"
"Of course not."
Zhao Yi said, "I came specifically to you, Teacher Gao. Our laboratory is conducting experiments to measure neural responses and we need someone who understands physical experiments, as well as some precise measuring equipment."
The latter was the most important.
Zhu Qi and Zhang Wei had long been engaged in biomedical research, and while the physical handling of detailed physical experiments was not a major issue for them, there could still be errors in data measurement, and capturing accurate measurements during the experimental process was most crucial.
