Ground-breaking reference explaining the biological properties of nerve cell membranes from a unifying physical perspective

Without neglecting the known theories of nerve impulse propagation, Physics of Nerves and Excitatory Membranes focuses on the less known features of nerve cell membranes, such as their mechanical, caloric and optical properties. Based on these properties, the author then develops an electromechanical theory of pulse propagation, offering the most plausible explanation yet for some unresolved questions regarding the effects observed during general anesthesia.

Physics of Nerves and Excitatory Membranes is didactically written and includes information on:

• The structure and electrical properties of nerves, dimensions and mechanical properties of the nerve pulse, and optical changes during the action potential
• Cable theory, voltage gating, the Hodgkin-Huxley model, and protein ion channels
• Membrane structure and melting, phase behavior, domains, and rafts, and the influence of pressure, voltage, drugs, proteins, pH, and ionic strength
• Heat capacity, sound propagation, relaxation timescales, and capacitance and capacitive susceptibility
• The emergence of solitary nerve pulses in a biological membrane under physiological conditions
• Voltage-gated and mechanosensitive lipid channels, temperature sensing, and selectivity of lipid channels

Physics of Nerves and Excitatory Membranes is of prime interest for biophysicists studying biomembranes as well as for neurobiologists and clinical researchers studying anesthesia. Its accessible style makes it very well suited for teaching the subjects that it covers.

Thomas Heimburg is Professor for Biophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), where he is the head of the Membrane Biophysics Group. His research focuses on theoretical and experimental thermodynamics of biological systems, including biomembranes, artificial lipid membranes, and proteins. He is the author of the book Thermal Biophysics of Membranes (Wiley-VCH, 2007).