Physics explains biology - Action of nerves is based on sound pulses

What's Next | University of Copenhagen ^ | 3/7/07

[DungeonMaster]

No way. Math has no intrinsic units except numbers. Physics is about physical propertities and quantifying said physical properties. Math is physics' b*tch. ;-)

[RobRoy]

I am a bass player.

Suddenly so many things make sense...

[RobRoy]

Absolutely. Once you understand how a thing works, you can design a weapon to destroy or at least make it non functional.

Maybe we really could create phasers that could set to stun!

Can you imagine a stun bomb set off in a "bad" neighborhood in Iraq before our guys move in?

[RobRoy]

>>Doesn't he know that sound waves produce heat too as they travel through a substance?<<

That crossed my mind as well...

[Psycho_Bunny]

No. It's not.

[rbookward]

Ahh. That explains why EEGs don't work. Acustics instead of electricity, therefore no electro-magnetic waves to pick up.

Do I need a sarc tag?

[3niner]

All science is physics.

Good point. The fuzzy "sciences" come into play only when the physics isn't well understood.

[xenophiles]

"But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation. The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced,"

Do these "physicists" understand that a nerve impulse is not a simple electrical current? That a spontaneous reaction need not generate heat? According to their calculations, how much heat should a nerve cell produce when it fires? And how did they measure the heat produced by a nerve cell with enough precision to rule it out? If they get this far they will have a major scientific breakthrough.

Whether they do or not, the stuff about sound might have some scientific value too. But it fails the random sentence test, so I won't bother with it until/unless they clean it up.

[Ranxerox]

...The membrane of the nerve is composed of lipids, a material that is similar to olive oil. This material can change its state from liquid to solid with temperature. The freezing point of water can be lowered by the addition of salt. Likewise, molecules that dissolve in membranes can lower the freezing point of membranes. The scientists found that the nerve membrane has a freezing point, which is precisely suited to the propagation of these concentrated sound pulses. Their theoretical calculations lead them to the same conclusion: Nerve pulses are sound pulses...

Oy.

With regards to the bolded text: so can every other material.

Either the author of this article didn't have a clue about the subject as it was explained to him, or it's just a load of theoretical BS. It definitely lost something in translation.

[colorado tanker]

A scientific "consensus" that was wrong??? Can't be!

[Right Wing Assault]

What is the difference between an extraordinary proof and a proof? If I can prove something with a simple proof, why do they demand an extraordinary proof.

Also, "proof" is a poor word to choose for scientific use. Math does proofs. Science does experiments that either support (to varying degrees) or do not support hypotheses.

[GovernmentShrinker]

It may eventually be shown that both theories are correct; i.e. that nerve signals consist of sound waves which are triggered by electrical impulses. Then EEGs would still work :-)

[ModelBreaker]

No. It's not.

Ah. So you have a VERY strong prior in this one. No?

[Malsua]

So does this mean that they need to re-jig the reasons why the machines enslaved us in "The Matrix"?

They have to rework that scene:

Morpheus: What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this:

[holds up a Duracell battery]

[holds up an iPod]

[Pietro]

Maybe something like this could prove useful against the enemy in battle?

Check out "The Shout" by Robert Graves

[Psycho_Bunny]

Go back and read what you wrote and ask yourself if you're someone you'd respond to.

You took what I said out of context and flew off the handle about what you imagined I was saying.

I didn't even finish reading what you wrote because it was so breathlessly self-important.

[MortMan]

I am a bass player.

I'm learning to play rainbow trout. ;-P

[RobRoy]

>>I'm learning to play rainbow trout. ;-P<<

I can't get past the bones... ;)

[Blueflag]

sure.

try physics w/o your calculator, your integrals, or your Excel macro, or SASS or ...


;-p


physics is all mechanical w/o math.