Thanks to Blinkist for sponsoring this video. The first 100 people to go to www.blinkist.com/scienceasylum are going to get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. You'll also get 25% off if you want the full membership. *Minor Correction:* Technically, each of the circuit components of the Hodgkin-Huxley circuit do not represent a single component in the cell. It's more accurate to say the circuit components represent a _population_ of the cell components.
@@ScienceAsylum no they were good. I tried to promote your channel in other science channels(vsauce, veritasium, physics girl...), but something has happened, your channel picked up the pace and crossed 100k, 200k. Best thing is you never lost faith in hard times.
If brain is electrical circuit then wheee is the TV inside we see images and hear audio in our mind? Where is mind located? How does this electrical circuit give rise to drama and imagination and talking inside? Does it store images as videos play without Tv screen inside brain 🧠?
The fact that he took the time to buy a Luigi costume from Amazon or elsewhere for the sake of making a joke that would only span on the video for about 3 seconds in an effort to make the video upbeat enough for our brains to not give up halfway through the video while he explains complicated ideas is beyond me. Love his work
He only had to make a paper L for the cap and a paper/plastic mustache. I have a few baseball caps, T-shirts, an overall and garden gloves. I could be Luigi tonight, without buying anything from Amazon.
@@ScienceAsylum hi, how are the channels selective of what goes through? Lik what’s the inside made to let one through without the other? The ions would be different sizes, but what stops both of them from going through the one that can fit the larger one? I know I’m missing something, please help
@@naturegirl1999 I looked this up, apparently it's by size. To remain stable, an ion must form bonds. In dissolved ions, under normal condition, these are formed by water molecules. They crowd around the ion and form a 'cage', within which the ion is stable. The channel is not wide enough to let the water cage through, however. Hence, the ion must lose its cage to go through the channel. This would leave it in an unstable state and hence the ion does not leave the channel, just as a ball does not roll uphill. However, if the ion is just large enough, it can form bonds with the amino acids in the channel and maintain stability. In this way, by carefully controlling channel size, different ions can be selected.
Not everyone does the effort to present science with historical background. None of my professors do this and that is what I like about Nick. Thanks a lot for these videos my man!
As an electronic engineer I loved this one. ATP, proton pumps, electron transport chains - it’s fascinating how nature has been using electronics to do useful work for billions of years before we did! Thanks also for the shout out at the end, sinh = 'cinch', sorry for talking hyperbolics!🤣
Yeah sure, atoms are so intelligent that they bind together the right way to code themselves and to form mechanisms that depending on the needs ( imposed by the environment ) which perfectly meets the necessary things that an organization of atoms would need to maintain itself, face time, renew itself, a system which allows the transformation of food from their unusable form to that of a form usable as a source of energy, transport system of this potential source of energy to the living units which are located in different places and allow a constant supply and prevent the different (precise) possible causes of a stoppage of supply such as a loss of pressure in the piping system by viscosity by making the body want to drink and not want to eat, which will result in the fluidification and increase in the volume of the liquid transporting the energy source and will restore its hydrostatic pressure ( only when this is the case, that is to say when the translation of this different assembly of atoms forming a portion of code informing about what we need and should do to construct these « sensitive to the mechanical deformation » cells once developed and (according to a signaling system included in the large code) developed at specific locations such as in the "kidney", when is no longer sufficiently mechanically deformed by the pressure of the circulating liquid which is a sign of loss of pressure but since the heart would have accelerated following this ( loss of pressure in the whole piping system ) to solve this concern ( and is currently accelerated in response to this ) if at this distant place (not too much but enough to know something ) called "the kidney" , there is a loss of pressure sufficient to avoid the mechanical deformation, then it is the volume and the fluidity of the liquid which is the cause and not the heartbeat speed and cannot be answered by any power of beat of the heart, and hence the activation of the release of an assembly of atoms with precise three-dimensional geometric shapes in the circulating liquid which will end up in an area of the brain which contains an assembly of atoms fixed, that having at the extremities strictly the opposite shape and of which one and the other clips (precision at the atomic scale) and resulted in the triggering of the neuron which will in turn activate (by branching out ) a unique network of precise neurons resulting in the sensation of Thirst. water enters the circulation system of the energy transport and fluidizes and increases the volume. Humans don’t know why they have thirst sensation in history. anyway, only because the atoms are where they are and therefore form the code they form. I continue, system that avoid a loss of pressure which could result from the appearance of faults in the piping system for the transport of energy source, by producing a sequence of assembly of different atoms in the initial inactive form (to avoid a blockage of circulation) and which following the contact of one of them with one of the assemblies of atoms present on a surface which is never in contact with the liquid in circulation (except in the case of a fault, injury) activate one by one step by step and agglomerate between them and activate in turn other assemblies of atoms alone ( circulating ) which must never be activated except in the case of a "proven" injury itself proven by the presence of the agglomeration of proteins (in activated form) which are activated and agglomerated between them only by the presence of other precise ones below them which are activated by contact with the surface never being in contact with the liquid except in the case of a fault. because their activation will trigger the clot and block everything anywhere and cause the death of downstream organs no longer receiving energy, and the organization of organs die. I continue, organization of atoms resulting in a code that inform and guide to place each molecules in a order that build a system that should catch toxic charged materials, charged chemicals, toxins, poison, heavy metals which will necessarily be encountered in food present in the environment, and which short-circuit the formation of ATP that no longer allow the cells of any fabric layer of any organ to have cellular activity and therefore stop activity, coma, appearance of reversible then irreversible damage to the cell (death), organization of atoms resulting in a code that orders and guides the stacking of atoms (constituting the matter that surrounds you, and also constitutes your environment, your furniture), resulting in a system that would prevent circulation of and inactivate the "reactive oxygen species", « ROS » which causes the inevitable cancers, and the disruption of the membranes of the cells of the organs (needed for vital activities) of the organism and leads to death, and parallel system which detects and catches the unique three-dimensional shapes and unique chemical composition of parasites encountered in the environment (bacteria) and circulating in the piping system for the transport of the energy source, bacteria multiplying, clinging to the surfaces of living units (cells of the organism) and destroy their plasma membranes by the release of toxins, and steal their resources glucose, ATP, living only to infect and destroy, communicating their resistance against the body's defense system . which form 3 of the multiple functions of the "liver" The large code (DNA) formed by the agglomeration of atoms which guides the stacking of molecules (with physico-chemical properties which are specific to each other such as alkalinity, acidity, positive and negative charges, hydrophilic, hydrophobic and others) and which by their distance between them (according to the order of their placement) repel and attract each other more or less strongly and take a form also dependent on the timing of the placement of each because a local three-dimensional form x will induce interactions with the succeeding local three-dimensional form which will be different than if it adopted a local three-dimensional form y, which finally leads by cascade, to the changes of the final three-dimensional shape. and the whole forming giant molecular machines which once agglomerate by hundreds form other cells and according to the signaling signals indicating the location of each thing (at a certain stage of the development of the embryo) guide according to other portion of this great code (that atoms forms ), the location of these specialized cells in the nose. cells which form a system which, by recognizing the geometric shapes of the volatile molecules released by the bacteria, indicate their presence, specific cells which among the others have their addressing of their nervous portion which points to specific areas of the centers of the brain of smell which cause disgust and cause the organism to flee. and according to another portion of the code forms cells placed on the tongue and recognizes the geometric shape and chemical composition of the membranes of bacteria and spores, and toxic materials, and which among others have their addressing of their nerve portion which points to specific areas of the brain's taste centers and cause disgust, strong bitter taste and cause the organism to don’t eat while the cells placed in the nose and tongue which recognize the geometric shapes and chemical compositions of the volatile and fixed molecules emitted and constituents the sources of vitamins, minerals, simple and complex sugar, fatty acids and essential amino acids which allow the construction of which maintains the different cellular activity, repair, multiply, rebuild the proteins which degrade over time, source of energy which are profitable and allow the life of the organism, have their addressing of their nerve portion which points to specific areas of the taste and smell centers of the brain and cause pleasure, attraction. Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, sulphide, silicon, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, calcium, nickel, cobalt, iron, copper, zinc, iodine, molybdenum that make up each building and bins and cable you pass by and that have come together and organized to answers the needs of each of the different organisms that they will form based on their environment (cold, hot, dry, humidity, height, water, pressure, predator, prey, day-night cycle duration, etc. and the mechanisms they form continue to outpace us, it all just depends on the code, now Does a code improve over time and answers the different specific needs of different organizations just over time? so it wouldn't be surprising to place a math test and wait until after 10 billion years the atoms have finished to forming a pen or whatever and put to the test all the correct answers. I prefer to believe that the agglomeration of all this is the fruit of a perfectly learned intelligence, and moreover who can master perfectly quantum mechanics as well if not its creator. some animals have some quantum-scale sensitive proteins for magnetism that can maintain quantum entanglement for 20 micro-secondes more than the latest laboratory system, some plants have some proteins that work through quantum effects, humans also have proteins in the electron transport complex.
Once again you have nailed it! As a former Biochemistry major who ended up teaching Physics at High school, this video is a fantastic and relatively simple explanation of the nerve impulse propagation. I would be showing this video to all my students if I was still teaching!!! Well done!
Well this does certainly explain a lot this does not even begin to scratch everything because one way of looking at this is modern day computer electronics are billions of times faster than the human brain so why is it that if we can make computer electronics that are billions of times more faster than the human brain even wire them in three dimensions in a way that similar to that of the human brain we still can’t replicate what sentences we still can’t have an artificial intelligence today is every bit as intelligent as we are general AI is a long way off so this Model of the human brain is the beginning it’s simple but I do believe it’s way too simple it doesn’t tell nearly enough
Lol….. you do know that each cell in your body holds a electrical charge, once that electrical charge dissipates or slowly dissipates, you basically hallucinate death, if biological death is a for sure thing, it’s in the present, doesn’t necessarily mean your energy has disappeared though, it’s true in that date in time, time is made up. That energy continues on back to familiarity to be birthed again to a time more recognizable. E= mc2 Energy or Emotions= Mind or manifestation, C= speed of light= pure subconscious . If your in your body it’s more conscious, now subconscious and deja vu has a correlation, especially when you start to remember your past life, it can definitely get creepy. That’s actually what creates mental illness though. You body does remember all the aches and pains though, and it keeps score along with your emotions. You can remember your state of mind and mindset.
"Oh no! Does that give robots an advantage?" ... sent me into rolling laughter ... then I wondered about the neuron connections that contribute to laughter ... whatever ... My late husband Rick was a biologist and he spoke about this sort of thing ... a bit ... BUT Nick you bring it home (as you do many topics) Thank You.
I'm not going to lie, at this point I'm really not sure anymore who the original Nick is. I think one of the clones took over. Nick, if you need help blink twice and release a video on the cloning process. Great video, btw. This is a topic i know absolutely nothing about :)
Mind. Blown. This channel is incredible. I force my nieces and nephews to watch when they come to visit. They love you because--and I quote: "He's silly smart." Bless you Nick Lucid.
This is what I roughly already knew (a lot of details were new to me, but those are the ones that I will forget again). I was waiting for the next step.
I'm 34 and I loved my science and biology classes in high school... and this is the first time someone comprehensively explains to me how neurons work. Might be my fault for not doing biology in college, but still. Great video! I think we needed this!
I just took a mathematical biology class in my last quarter of college and we covered Hodgkin-Huxley equations. One of my favorite classes I've taken. Really helped to cement in differential equations.
animal spirit was a liquid to him, all is relative to their time, they discovered hydraulics so they thought of that, when we got the "information theory" from shannon et al. everything became a computer, in the future they'll do the same too. as one great mind i can't remember the name said: "when you only have a hammer, every problem is a nail"
I study bio chemistry, and this is more intuitive than my textbooks describe it. Well done. The only thing missing could be the transmission to other cells trough neurotransmitters. And you could have maybe made a reference to adenosinediphosphate being one of those transmitters. Causing you to feel tired. Would have been a real wow moment
I was amazed to learn the plants can have action potentials, transmitting signals across cell membranes like you explain for animal neurons. Carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap need to respond rapidly to stimuli from their prey to close their traps. The mechanism it seems is just like the action potential in animal neurons. I'd love to see a video about how muscles use electrodynamics at a similar and bigger scale, how actin and myosin are like nanomachines.
It's just crazy to me how all of this is going on constantly and we just wake up every day without any hiccups (most of the time). We don't malfunction and have fundamental personality changes or anything crazy just happen from errors. It's just crazy how all of this stuff works the way it does and so well.
And the fact that signals take time to travel which means what we perceive as *the* instant of consciousness is smeared over milliseconds with no defined start or end point.
@@ax14pz107 Without retardation in processes, there would be no feedback mechanism that supports information stability and predictability. Even an electronic device, a basic memory device like a flipflop, requires time lag in order to work. One status is ensued by a next, with some time lag in between that separates them. A flipflop is much faster than a biological neuron, but that is not important. Biological neurons interact with one another on a geometrical scale. An electronic processor takes much more cycles to get to a similar state of processing, so the speed at which electronics work is necessary to get on par with what biology can do with much less speed per neuron.
Nice explanation, I work for a year in a R&D lab at my university designing a circuit to acquire this kind of signals. Another reason why they chose a squid giant neuron is because those are capable of tolerate and work normally in a wide temperature range. Keep up with this videos, they are amazing.
I'd love a much longer loop of the circuit and neurons animation! I couldn't stop myself from rewatching that part over and over. Thanks for the amazing video :)
I was told when I had my “Big Accident” (was in a climbing fall) that when my body shut down and I began the process of dying (was pronounced dead by my climbing partners when they found me) my heart sent out one final massive O2 rich pump of blood through my body in which where my brain was in a sense “jump started” and that the effect it probably had caused a sort of short term hardwiring of my synaptic HWY and that’s why I experienced all of my life’s experiences in a fraction of a second and yet still was able to comprehend it all. As if my entire life literally flashed before me, every sight, every sound, touch, taste, emotional feelings and so on was mine to observe in one complete picture and yet it all still made complete sense. This may be why when someone nearly dies they always say “my life flashed before me”
Well, i heard that a group of scientists who were performing a eeg on a very elderly person had the person inadvertently die while hooked up. In the subject's final moments they observed flashed of activity in the areas of the brain related to recalling visual memories.
From neurons firing impulses, to visualizations that shows the model in an intuitive way, to the sponsor that condense a full book into minutes, it's all about sending information fast. Fast-fast.
If you would arrive at the internet 10, 15 years earlier, I would've definitely chase being a scientists because of you. Also I knew about how neurons work, from university because it was needed in informatics, yet that its all like a battery was an enormous surprise to me. Love your vids, thanks for them!
Awesome intro video. I'd love to see you take this to the latest level. Anirban Bandyopadhyay is working to publish research to show each Neuron can be treated as two separate resistors. The resistor value of each component becomes a varistor as a function of microtubules lengths and other factors within the microtubules. Essentially a varistor made of tons of tiny resistors that vary and likely integrate/store information in through alpha and beta tubulin protein helices. It goes super deep but maybe a short extension video would be sweet exploring the latest Anirban has assembled in his book and channel.
Hey now... this is the Science Asylum, not the Physics Asylum. And biochemistry and electrophysiology are both sciences. No need to apologize or to cater to the "but that's not physics" crowd. As a biological sciences and nursing major, I approve of this product and/or service.
Even in the US many industries that have to work with metallurgy at all may find themselves using the word "galvanic" more than "voltaic". Depending on the industry, "galvanized" may even be used more than "volt".
They have two different meanings. Galvanic is used to indicate the action of an electric current on something, such as coating a metal through an electrolytic process (galvanic coating) or the electric separation of two bodies (galvanic insulation). Voltaic is referred to the actual electric potential such as in a voltaic cell which means it features an (static) electric potential. The first one can be seen related to current (or the lack of current), while the latter can be only referred to the electric potential. In fact a galvanometer is an instrument that essentially works thanks to the flow of an electric current, while a voltmeter should ideally work without any current.
Very nice linkage of several different perspectives, that a lot of school teachers might miss without a lot of background training or professional development initiative. It makes me wonder more about how nerve cells evolved. Is it true that sponges don't have them? That in jelly fish the same cells send signals in both directions through the nerve net, while in comb jellies the neurons are directionally specialized? What about echinoderms, the closest phylum to chordates? Molluscs and arthropods have eyes, so their sensori-motor circuits may be similar to vertebrates, did they evolve separately or in some Bilateria ancestor? How did the nervous systems of chordates like salps turn into the vertebrate nervous system. And don't forget the microglia, without the pruning and regenerating they do vertebrates might not have the kind of memory they do. Keep the neurobiology videos coming!
The unique thing about your videos is that you don't try to skip any details or say handwavy arguments. Really appreciate your approach. I have been told quite a few times how neurons transmit data but there's always some hole in their argument. You actually built the circuit and explained almost everything. I still had one question. It would be great if you could explain the variable resistors. 1)Can I model them with a just a switch and a resistor? 2)How does the time control work?
This was a fun video to make. I learned a lot! There's something special when a video is about something I just learned. The excitement is fresh. I just don't often have time for that. Having a writer for this one _made_ it possible.
Impressive work Nick! Packing this much science in 15 minutes or so must have been a challenge, but the video came out beautifully and it's self contained (you really do not need much external reference to understand it fully) Also as an Italian, I approve of the Galvani / Super Luigi impression. It was hilarious
Thanks, but I can't take full credit. This video never would have happened if I hadn't hired writers to help me cover topics I have no previous experience with. The writer for this one is credited in the video description 🙂
@@ScienceAsylum good to know you are growing! Keep it up But also don't abandon your own scripting: you often had some "golden nugget" insight that was unique or at the very least unheard of
@@TheNasaDude Don't worry. I'll still be writing a lot of the videos. I just need (maybe) a few scripts per year to be written by someone else so I can branch out from my personal knowledge... and to free up some time for me to write scripts I've been avoiding because they'd take too long. I'm also very much involved in the scripts they're writing for me. Like you said, I still have to make sure the video has those qualities that my viewers expect. It still has to be a Science Asylum video in the end.
@@ScienceAsylum it seems you've really thought it through. As was expected from the mastermind of an army of clones. Keep it up, I hope you'll find satisfaction and big success in your TH-cam career
I learn so much from this channel. I love Nick's videos. They're entertaining, and educational. But the real beauty is how he makes his knowledge so easily digestible to the common view. Please never stop, Nick.
I remember after they released the album I would listen it everyday on my 30 mile commute to college that semester. Had to leave at 620 AM to get there by 730. The "Wake up" bit always got to me haha. But I'd have to respectfully disagree. Pneuma is good yes, but hard to top Vicarious or Reflection IMO. But I digress.
Awesome !!! .. The analogy between biological components of the cell and the common physical instrument we are so familiar was just too good !! Thanks a lott and please keep on connecting physics and biology
One valuable thing I learned about neurons (and you did not specifically mention but your circuit model shows) is that they fire, or not; but the level at which neurons fire is VARIABLE. So they work like digital and analog components AT THE SAME TIME...God is awesome...
I already knew all you said about neurons biology (I'm a psychologist) but the physics aproach you showed really help me to understand how the process works to an even deeper level which is great.... oh and btw some how you indirectly helped me understand krebs cycle but it'd be great if you made a video about that.
This video brilliantly covers an important component of the first year of the Experimental Psychology degree at Oxford that looks at exactly this mechanism and experiments that tweak with the mechanism (holding gates open, changing firing times, etc.) to see what happens. I know, because my daughter is just starting the 3rd year and we read through numerous papers on this at the time. As usual, Nick, your video explains things beautifully. (Don't even get me started on the appalling fashion for circumlocution in some academic writing!)
Thanks for a super interesting and informative video! As a person who has these metabolics badly out off whack I really appreciate you explaining about them with easy to understand graphics 😊💛.
Rah-mohn ee Kah-hal. That's how you spell it. Anyway, been binge-watching A LOT of your videos this week. Your stuff on energy and electricity is way too revealing not to, works really really well to create new intuitions and teach stuff even without saying it at all. And getting insights on things I barely recall from high school like ATP is really handy too! Greetings from Rah-mohn's peninsula!
I cannot say how funny, balanced and well-made this video is. This is near perfection. I am so glad that you exist as a TH-camr. Always been a fan. Please keep up the good work. And I like these longer videos full of jokes that do the topic justice. (You probably had some help from your wife which is cool). Q: -70mV is resting because we say so, but its still not neutral. So how come the potassium ion channels naturally jump back to -70mV? Shouldn't it require energy to attain a non neutral state and therefore ion pump action during re-polarization? Or is it just because how we model it that we think of only balancing from overshooting when the batteries turn on? But in reality that doesn't happen and ion pumps and batteries do work during repolarization as well?
The potassium ions exit the cell flowing *down their concentration gradient* once their ion channels open and allow them to do so. This naturally drops the membrane potential since its a rapid exit of positive charge. The potassium ion channels are triggered to open when the voltage is near the top of the "spike." Hope this helps answer your question.
Re : Kieth Van Antwerp, Kudos , you nailed that answer, infact there is absolutely no reason for me to cop so why the hell am I ? Well this is TH-cam and we are a bunch of Crazies , or as Nick would, it’s ok to be a little crazy 😜. Take Care all . R .
The energy comes from the gradient of K+ concentration. K+ has significantly higher concentration inside the cell. It's enough to do work against the electric potential, because the osmotic potential of K+ ions is simply higher in magnitude. The -70mV is the NET VOLTAGE from ALL the concentration gradients of all ions around the membrane. However, the chemical energies of concentration gradients of individual ions are mutually independent.
Thank You for your replies. I get it. JazakAllah Khairan. Its basically that during hyperpolarization, the ion pumps don't just make a random configuration that ensures -70mV. They do it carefully ensuring the both ion gradient's are unbalanced (more sodium outside, more potassium inside). That is how the system resets to go again using the gradients to induce the spike. Pretty sneaky, nature.
@The Science Asylum Great video. Oh how I enjoyed learning about electrophysiology and the vaious signal patterns for the systems within the body, and how different pathologies (illness/disease) affect them, when I did my Intensive Care Nursing qualification in the late 70s. The easiest way to represent this is through what most people have seen, an ECG/EKG and usually from one viewpoint, what we would call a normal heartbeat seen on many products. A standard ECG test is what is called a "12 Lead ECG" which by using a combination of the 10 leads attached to your arms, legs, and across your chest gives us 12 standard views (angles) of the heart's conduction system. The heart is a complex organ that must work all the time. The pressure wave from the (left ventricular) heart beat can be felt as your pulse. When the Nurse listens to your heart they first concentrate on the "lub dub" (the openin and closing of the valves in the heart, then there are other sounds to lsten for. If there is a defect in the conduction system caused by a "heart attack" or many other reasons, it can be localised by identifying the particular part of the ECG wave that is disrupted using the patterns formed by the different leads. A great way (for me) to lose hours on the interwebs.
Womp! Love the explanation, this is a nice change of pace and something I really didn't know much about. You really have to appreciate the speed at which these biochemical processes happen. All this complex machinery, selecting very specific atoms/moecules/proteins and moving them around, we use animations to explain it (good job btw) but all of that is happening in a few microseconds. Boggles the mind.
The duplication of DNA, when a cell is preparing to divide in two, is rolling the strand at about 500 "letter" (one of four molecule A, T, C or G) per second. That is, unzipping the double helix and attaching the correct complementary molecule on each side. Actually, the other side of the helix is read in opposite direction for error correction... Nick's wife can explain all this...
10:04 You could say it propagates down a channel like a radio wave or any alternating voltage through a conductor. Great video on brain cells. You should do a follow up video on how neural networks operate. It would make a good segway into computers and AI.
This guy is SEVERELY underrated, maybe on the account of acting as a a joker, but don't be fooled, apart from good laughs he doles out generously, the science popularization content is second to none on TH-cam (no disrespect to VSauce, Veritasium, Up & Atom etc...)
I had a question! The model you showed just showed one cell membrane. Does the axon have multiple cell membranes down it's entire length? How do these membranes connect? Is there any common ground between the outsides of the membranes? Also, maybe unrelated and outside of the scope, how does the cell regulate this? How does it know when to turn on the ion pump? I understand it's probably just a product of evolution (cells that regulated this the correct way were more likely to be selected for), but could you elaborate a bit on some of the chemical processes?
The signal( called action potential) moves through the membrane like a mexican wave moves throughout a stadium. activation of a na channels cause the activation of na channels nearby.
@@botfred743 Nick explained it in terms of cell membranes. I think I just don't understand how it can propagate without the continuous cell membranes, according to the model described in the video.
Subhasish Mukherjee Proteins 3 dimentional structures are determined by the electro-chemical micro environment that they are in. For example Ph, heat, electric charges etc. The 3 dimensional structure that lets Na through it is only possible in a certain electrical potential. When the micro environmental around a Na channel changes, so does the actual 3D shape of a Na channel and it lets Na ions flow. But this flow of Na ions also changes its micro environment so Na channels that are close to the original one aldo change their 3D structures. This forms a chain reaction of opening and closing. It moves though a cell membrane like a mexican wave. Hope I could be helpfull!!
@@botfred743 That does clear some things up and was very interesting! Thanks for the explanation. But I still feel my original question hasn't really been answered. Down the length of the axon, is there a continuous stream of sodium channels? Where are the channels embedded? I guess I'm just asking how the axon itself is physically structured.
In a single neuron, the axon is a single tubular-ish membrane that extends from the cell body to the target (there are usually a bunch of tiny branches at the end of the axon, and each ends in a knob-shaped terminal). In MOST cases, the axon does not physically contact the next cell. Instead there is a very small gap called the synaptic cleft. The axon terminal uses the electrical impulse as a trigger to release a chemical (neurotransmitter) into the synaptic cleft. That neurotransmitter then binds to the target and the 'communication' has been effected. As a sweeping generalization in human physiology, very large cells, (muscle cells and neurons) use electricity to send signals across their own surface very quickly. But cells talking to other cells is almost always a chemical transfer.
Great video as usual. The title and your physics background made me excited that the video is probably going to cover the non-electrical aspects of action potential , something I also worked on during my PhD :D
Your videos are amazing. This should be paid content. University standard concepts explained in language a layperson understands. I really hope you get a science medal for your work.
Suggestion for a video on similar subject: Talk about the integration happening in synapses (same word as integral (and differential) in calculus). The positive integration were many pulses are needed to trigger the next neuron. But the more you wait, the more you need extra pulses to pump up or recharge the integrator. The negative is using GABA, the neuroinhibitor to silence the next neuron until the integration time elapse. Galvanometer is those old way to display sound intensity in old amplifiers. It was also the way voltmeter were showing voltage before red led or LCD 7 segment display. I was sceptical about the way a physicist would approach biology. Not anymore. There is brand new information such as the presence of chlorine atoms around the sodium and potassium.
Excellent video thanks. Kindly consider a followup on two aspects: 1) does the process have errors in the voltage values and the errors propagate over time? Does sleep have anything to do with correcting these errors? 2) What mechanism dictates how long the K/Na channels and ion pumps remain open? In the same species brain, are there neurons that operate on different times and/or voltages?
The brain consuming 20% (even up to 25%) of the body's energy is the single most important fact not mentioned by ANY "diet" you find online that you have to be careful about
This makes me think about making nanobots out of lipid bi-layers and ions, and then systems to prevent lipid oxidation, and then systems for maintenance, and then nutrition, and then... Maybe it's just better to get a hamster.
It could be fun as a technical exercise. But why reinvent the wheel, when you can reprogram the "nanobots" that are already naturally occurring on this planet. It's like trying to make iron via nuclear fusion, when you can just dig it out of the ground.
@@KohuGaly Why reinvent the wheel? Because the first ones were crude, wooden and always broke. We do things that have been done before in order to learn more. That's just how science rolls. (see what I did there?)
I have to get hung up on the names because I'm a bio student. 10/10 explanation, and I'm saying this purely through biological viewpoint not only physics viewpoint. Edit - Even the 3 Na+ and 2 K+ exchange is accurate! Didn't notice that
Thanks to Blinkist for sponsoring this video. The first 100 people to go to www.blinkist.com/scienceasylum are going to get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. You'll also get 25% off if you want the full membership.
*Minor Correction:* Technically, each of the circuit components of the Hodgkin-Huxley circuit do not represent a single component in the cell. It's more accurate to say the circuit components represent a _population_ of the cell components.
@@ScienceAsylum do you remember the time when the science asylum stuck at 16k subscribers for like months
@@rodkakarot2553 Yep! I remember when it took me 2 years just to get to 1000 subs. That was fair though. My early videos are terrible.
@@ScienceAsylum no sir they are just as awesome . Salute
@@ScienceAsylum no they were good. I tried to promote your channel in other science channels(vsauce, veritasium, physics girl...), but something has happened, your channel picked up the pace and crossed 100k, 200k. Best thing is you never lost faith in hard times.
If brain is electrical circuit then wheee is the TV inside we see images and hear audio in our mind? Where is mind located? How does this electrical circuit give rise to drama and imagination and talking inside? Does it store images as videos play without Tv screen inside brain 🧠?
The fact that he took the time to buy a Luigi costume from Amazon or elsewhere for the sake of making a joke that would only span on the video for about 3 seconds in an effort to make the video upbeat enough for our brains to not give up halfway through the video while he explains complicated ideas is beyond me. Love his work
Bold of you to assume he didn’t always have a Luigi costume ha,going around…
That's funny I was thinking the same exact thing. Really like this channel, the guy doing it really goes over and above.
Buy? He obviously made it himself.
@@tonyhakston536 that's what I was thinking lol
He only had to make a paper L for the cap and a paper/plastic mustache. I have a few baseball caps, T-shirts, an overall and garden gloves. I could be Luigi tonight, without buying anything from Amazon.
Biology/Physics crossovers are the most epic crossovers
Just wondering if using JC Dentons profile picture has netted you any of the supposed hype?
Biophysics
Oooh, crossovers are tight!
is it really a crossover when it's all fundamentally physics?
@@tasnimealkilany1990 And by physics, you mean mathematics, right?
*This man single handedly taught me more in two months than my school in whole year*
Brother, trust me, books are much better if you read carefully. But yeah you can use these videos as additional helping material
I totally agree #quahntasy
Nick was one of the best professors I had, and I'm glad he's reaching the world's audience.
but he used both of his hands
@@DeeEm2K okie
I can't believe he created a Luigi clone just for that little gag. He truly is a legend
That's the thing i enjoyed the most.
Not so much for me but that's ok. Used to it by now.
Maybe Nick picked the subject of this video as an excuse to make a Luigi cosplay? XD
This former biochemistry professor says “well done!”
Thanks! 🤓
@@ScienceAsylum Pulmonary says Pneuma. Nice Work.
@@ScienceAsylum hi, how are the channels selective of what goes through? Lik what’s the inside made to let one through without the other? The ions would be different sizes, but what stops both of them from going through the one that can fit the larger one? I know I’m missing something, please help
@@naturegirl1999 I looked this up, apparently it's by size. To remain stable, an ion must form bonds. In dissolved ions, under normal condition, these are formed by water molecules. They crowd around the ion and form a 'cage', within which the ion is stable.
The channel is not wide enough to let the water cage through, however. Hence, the ion must lose its cage to go through the channel. This would leave it in an unstable state and hence the ion does not leave the channel, just as a ball does not roll uphill.
However, if the ion is just large enough, it can form bonds with the amino acids in the channel and maintain stability. In this way, by carefully controlling channel size, different ions can be selected.
@@sukritmanikandan3184 thank you
Not everyone does the effort to present science with historical background. None of my professors do this and that is what I like about Nick. Thanks a lot for these videos my man!
As an electronic engineer I loved this one. ATP, proton pumps, electron transport chains - it’s fascinating how nature has been using electronics to do useful work for billions of years before we did! Thanks also for the shout out at the end, sinh = 'cinch', sorry for talking hyperbolics!🤣
Glad you liked it 🤓
Yeah sure, atoms are so intelligent that they bind together the right way to code themselves and to form mechanisms that
depending on the needs ( imposed by the environment )
which perfectly meets the necessary things that an organization of atoms would need to maintain itself, face time, renew itself, a system which allows the transformation of food from their unusable form to that of a form usable as a source of energy, transport system of this potential source of energy to the living units which are located in different places and allow a constant supply and prevent the different (precise) possible causes of a stoppage of supply such as a loss of pressure in the piping system by viscosity by making the body want to drink and not want to eat,
which will result in the fluidification and increase in the volume of the liquid transporting the energy source and will restore its hydrostatic pressure ( only when this is the case, that is to say when the translation of this different assembly of atoms forming a portion of code informing about what we need and should do to construct these « sensitive to the mechanical deformation » cells once developed and (according to a signaling system included in the large code) developed at specific locations such as in the "kidney",
when is no longer sufficiently mechanically deformed by the pressure of the circulating liquid which is a sign of loss of pressure but since the heart would have accelerated following this ( loss of pressure in the whole piping system ) to solve this concern ( and is currently accelerated in response to this ) if at this distant place (not too much but enough to know something ) called "the kidney" , there is a loss of pressure sufficient to avoid the mechanical deformation, then it is the volume and the fluidity of the liquid which is the cause and not the heartbeat speed and cannot be answered by any power of beat of the heart,
and hence the activation of the release of an assembly of atoms with precise three-dimensional geometric shapes in the circulating liquid which will end up in an area of the brain which contains an assembly of atoms fixed, that having at the extremities strictly the opposite shape and of which one and the other clips (precision at the atomic scale) and resulted in the triggering of the neuron which will in turn activate (by branching out ) a unique network of precise neurons resulting in the sensation of Thirst.
water enters the circulation system of the energy transport and fluidizes and increases the volume.
Humans don’t know why they have thirst sensation in history.
anyway, only because the atoms are where they are and therefore form the code they form.
I continue,
system that avoid a loss of pressure which could result from the appearance of faults in the piping system for the transport of energy source, by producing a sequence of assembly of different atoms in the initial inactive form (to avoid a blockage of circulation) and which following the contact of one of them with one of the assemblies of atoms present on a surface which is never in contact with the liquid in circulation (except in the case of a fault, injury)
activate one by one step by step and agglomerate between them and activate in turn other assemblies of atoms alone ( circulating ) which must never be activated except in the case of a "proven" injury itself proven by the presence of the agglomeration of proteins (in activated form) which are activated and agglomerated between them only by the presence of other precise ones below them which are activated by contact with the surface never being in contact with the liquid except in the case of a fault.
because their activation will trigger the clot and block everything anywhere and cause the death of downstream organs no longer receiving energy, and the organization of organs die.
I continue,
organization of atoms resulting in a code that inform and guide to place each molecules in a order that build a system that should catch toxic charged materials, charged chemicals, toxins, poison, heavy metals which will necessarily be encountered in food present in the environment, and which short-circuit the formation of ATP that no longer allow the cells of any fabric layer of any organ to have cellular activity and therefore stop activity, coma, appearance of reversible then irreversible damage to the cell (death),
organization of atoms resulting in a code that orders and guides the stacking of atoms (constituting the matter that surrounds you, and also constitutes your environment, your furniture), resulting in a system that would prevent circulation of and inactivate the "reactive oxygen species", « ROS » which causes the inevitable cancers, and the disruption of the membranes of the cells of the organs (needed for vital activities) of the organism and leads to death,
and parallel system which detects and catches the unique three-dimensional shapes and unique chemical composition of parasites encountered in the environment (bacteria) and circulating in the piping system for the transport of the energy source, bacteria multiplying, clinging to the surfaces of living units (cells of the organism) and destroy their plasma membranes by the release of toxins, and steal their resources glucose, ATP, living only to infect and destroy, communicating their resistance against the body's defense system .
which form 3 of the multiple functions of the "liver"
The large code (DNA) formed by the agglomeration of atoms which guides the stacking of molecules (with physico-chemical properties which are specific to each other such as alkalinity, acidity, positive and negative charges, hydrophilic, hydrophobic and others) and which by their distance between them (according to the order of their placement) repel and attract each other more or less strongly and take a form also dependent on the timing of the placement of each because a local three-dimensional form x will induce interactions with the succeeding local three-dimensional form which will be different than if it adopted a local three-dimensional form y, which finally leads by cascade, to the changes of the final three-dimensional shape.
and the whole forming giant molecular machines which once agglomerate by hundreds form other cells and according to the signaling signals indicating the location of each thing (at a certain stage of the development of the embryo) guide according to other portion of this great code (that atoms forms ), the location of these specialized cells in the nose.
cells which form a system which, by recognizing the geometric shapes of the volatile molecules released by the bacteria, indicate their presence, specific cells which among the others have their addressing of their nervous portion which points to specific areas of the centers of the brain of smell which cause disgust and cause the organism to flee.
and according to another portion of the code forms cells placed on the tongue and recognizes the geometric shape and chemical composition of the membranes of bacteria and spores, and toxic materials, and which among others have their addressing of their nerve portion which points to specific areas of the brain's taste centers and cause disgust, strong bitter taste and cause the organism to don’t eat
while the cells placed in the nose and tongue which recognize the geometric shapes and chemical compositions of the volatile and fixed molecules emitted and constituents the sources of vitamins, minerals, simple and complex sugar, fatty acids and essential amino acids which allow the construction of which maintains the different cellular activity, repair, multiply, rebuild the proteins which degrade over time, source of energy which are profitable and allow the life of the organism,
have their addressing of their nerve portion which points to specific areas of the taste and smell centers of the brain and cause pleasure, attraction.
Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, sulphide, silicon, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, calcium, nickel, cobalt, iron, copper, zinc, iodine, molybdenum
that make up each building and bins and cable you pass by and that have come together and organized to answers the needs of each of the different organisms that they will form based on their environment (cold, hot, dry, humidity, height, water, pressure, predator, prey, day-night cycle duration, etc.
and the mechanisms they form continue to outpace us,
it all just depends on the code, now
Does a code improve over time and answers the different specific needs of different organizations just over time?
so it wouldn't be surprising to place a math test and wait until after 10 billion years the atoms have finished to forming a pen or whatever and put to the test all the correct answers.
I prefer to believe that the agglomeration of all this is the fruit of a perfectly learned intelligence, and moreover who can master perfectly quantum mechanics as well if not its creator.
some animals have some quantum-scale sensitive proteins for magnetism that can maintain quantum entanglement for 20 micro-secondes more than the latest laboratory system, some plants have some proteins that work through quantum effects, humans also have proteins in the electron transport complex.
@@bili4591 Man, are you a biologist?
Once again you have nailed it! As a former Biochemistry major who ended up teaching Physics at High school, this video is a fantastic and relatively simple explanation of the nerve impulse propagation. I would be showing this video to all my students if I was still teaching!!! Well done!
Thanks! 🤓
@Mr. Virtual Retired!
Well this does certainly explain a lot this does not even begin to scratch everything because one way of looking at this is modern day computer electronics are billions of times faster than the human brain so why is it that if we can make computer electronics that are billions of times more faster than the human brain even wire them in three dimensions in a way that similar to that of the human brain we still can’t replicate what sentences we still can’t have an artificial intelligence today is every bit as intelligent as we are general AI is a long way off so this Model of the human brain is the beginning it’s simple but I do believe it’s way too simple it doesn’t tell nearly enough
@@zaneal-amood5474 machine can process stuff way faster than our brains but our brain is way more complex than anything..
Lol….. you do know that each cell in your body holds a electrical charge, once that electrical charge dissipates or slowly dissipates, you basically hallucinate death, if biological death is a for sure thing, it’s in the present, doesn’t necessarily mean your energy has disappeared though, it’s true in that date in time, time is made up. That energy continues on back to familiarity to be birthed again to a time more recognizable. E= mc2 Energy or Emotions= Mind or manifestation, C= speed of light= pure subconscious . If your in your body it’s more conscious, now subconscious and deja vu has a correlation, especially when you start to remember your past life, it can definitely get creepy. That’s actually what creates mental illness though. You body does remember all the aches and pains though, and it keeps score along with your emotions. You can remember your state of mind and mindset.
This has to be the best science TH-cam channel out there. I follow a ton of science channels and none of them explain things quite like you do.
Thanks!
"Oh no! Does that give robots an advantage?" ... sent me into rolling laughter ... then I wondered about the neuron connections that contribute to laughter ... whatever ... My late husband Rick was a biologist and he spoke about this sort of thing ... a bit ... BUT Nick you bring it home (as you do many topics) Thank You.
I'm not going to lie, at this point I'm really not sure anymore who the original Nick is. I think one of the clones took over. Nick, if you need help blink twice and release a video on the cloning process.
Great video, btw. This is a topic i know absolutely nothing about :)
you assume there was an original and not a time travel clone that traveled back in time and cloned itself
Hahaha
@@Royvan7 Right... who's to say I'm not a walking bootstrap paradox? 🤷♂️
@@ScienceAsylum 😂
"Equations don't exude intuition." Yes, thank you for the thoughtful analogies and illustrations!
many in fact do excluded intuition
Mind. Blown.
This channel is incredible.
I force my nieces and nephews to watch when they come to visit.
They love you because--and I quote: "He's silly smart."
Bless you Nick Lucid.
Nick: "They were dead frog legs...there was no animal cruelty going on there"
Me: Wait! How did they become 'dead' frog legs in the first place?
they underwent critical existence failure
hired a local butcher. shhh...
They called Doc Hopper and Snake Walker from the Muppet Movie - "kill frogs."
Suicidal frogs
They were delivered by a stork.
perfect explanation on the Neuron signal transmission mechanism .
This is what I roughly already knew (a lot of details were new to me, but those are the ones that I will forget again). I was waiting for the next step.
I'm 34 and I loved my science and biology classes in high school... and this is the first time someone comprehensively explains to me how neurons work. Might be my fault for not doing biology in college, but still. Great video! I think we needed this!
I have watched about 5 to 7 TH-cam videos on the function of a Neuron, and so far this is the most detailed.
I just took a mathematical biology class in my last quarter of college and we covered Hodgkin-Huxley equations. One of my favorite classes I've taken. Really helped to cement in differential equations.
Rene Descartes: "it's hydraulics"
Also Rene Descartes: "IT'S ANIMAL SPIRITS!"
Conclusion: Animals spirit are liquid
@@darksid007 are cats liquid tho
animal spirit was a liquid to him, all is relative to their time, they discovered hydraulics so they thought of that, when we got the "information theory" from shannon et al. everything became a computer, in the future they'll do the same too.
as one great mind i can't remember the name said: "when you only have a hammer, every problem is a nail"
@@lavenderiaromero8707 cats are a gas because they expand to take all the available space.
I study bio chemistry, and this is more intuitive than my textbooks describe it.
Well done.
The only thing missing could be the transmission to other cells trough neurotransmitters.
And you could have maybe made a reference to adenosinediphosphate being one of those transmitters. Causing you to feel tired.
Would have been a real wow moment
The title should be
"Are differential equations just electric circuits?"
"Everything (made easy). Chapter No: " ... How many vids does Nick have?
"Are electric circuits just differential equations?"
Always has been
Do differential equations dream of electric cirtuits?
😂
no, but they are easy enough a dumb electric circuit can calculate them.
I was amazed to learn the plants can have action potentials, transmitting signals across cell membranes like you explain for animal neurons. Carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap need to respond rapidly to stimuli from their prey to close their traps. The mechanism it seems is just like the action potential in animal neurons. I'd love to see a video about how muscles use electrodynamics at a similar and bigger scale, how actin and myosin are like nanomachines.
It's just crazy to me how all of this is going on constantly and we just wake up every day without any hiccups (most of the time). We don't malfunction and have fundamental personality changes or anything crazy just happen from errors. It's just crazy how all of this stuff works the way it does and so well.
Agreed. Biology is wild.
Yeah, the human body is pretty amazing.
And the fact that signals take time to travel which means what we perceive as *the* instant of consciousness is smeared over milliseconds with no defined start or end point.
@@ax14pz107 Consciousness is far more crazy concept.
@@ax14pz107 Without retardation in processes, there would be no feedback mechanism that supports information stability and predictability. Even an electronic device, a basic memory device like a flipflop, requires time lag in order to work. One status is ensued by a next, with some time lag in between that separates them.
A flipflop is much faster than a biological neuron, but that is not important. Biological neurons interact with one another on a geometrical scale. An electronic processor takes much more cycles to get to a similar state of processing, so the speed at which electronics work is necessary to get on par with what biology can do with much less speed per neuron.
Nice explanation, I work for a year in a R&D lab at my university designing a circuit to acquire this kind of signals.
Another reason why they chose a squid giant neuron is because those are capable of tolerate and work normally in a wide temperature range.
Keep up with this videos, they are amazing.
I'd love a much longer loop of the circuit and neurons animation! I couldn't stop myself from rewatching that part over and over. Thanks for the amazing video :)
I've considered putting a 1-hour cut on my vlog, but I'm worried about how long it would take to render.
@@ScienceAsylum You could just make it go through once or twice, then we could loop the video.
I was told when I had my “Big Accident” (was in a climbing fall) that when my body shut down and I began the process of dying (was pronounced dead by my climbing partners when they found me) my heart sent out one final massive O2 rich pump of blood through my body in which where my brain was in a sense “jump started” and that the effect it probably had caused a sort of short term hardwiring of my synaptic HWY and that’s why I experienced all of my life’s experiences in a fraction of a second and yet still was able to comprehend it all. As if my entire life literally flashed before me, every sight, every sound, touch, taste, emotional feelings and so on was mine to observe in one complete picture and yet it all still made complete sense.
This may be why when someone nearly dies they always say “my life flashed before me”
Well, i heard that a group of scientists who were performing a eeg on a very elderly person had the person inadvertently die while hooked up. In the subject's final moments they observed flashed of activity in the areas of the brain related to recalling visual memories.
I like that your videos are covering wide spectrum: from clueless "what's a neuron" to differential euqations and models with schematics.
From neurons firing impulses, to visualizations that shows the model in an intuitive way, to the sponsor that condense a full book into minutes, it's all about sending information fast. Fast-fast.
If you would arrive at the internet 10, 15 years earlier, I would've definitely chase being a scientists because of you.
Also I knew about how neurons work, from university because it was needed in informatics, yet that its all like a battery was an enormous surprise to me.
Love your vids, thanks for them!
Thanks! That was really interesting. Love the way every time I get confused, your other self jumps in to voice this!
I'm completely blown away about how gorgeous this video is! Keep it up!
Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out 🙂
Anytime I can understand a difficult concept is testament to a very good teacher, thanks.
I've been following you for a long while and I think this is one of the best videos you ever made, congratulations I really enjoyed it.
Thanks! I feel really good about it too.
The way charges are propagated rather than conducted is what fascinates me to no end.
Awesome intro video. I'd love to see you take this to the latest level. Anirban Bandyopadhyay is working to publish research to show each Neuron can be treated as two separate resistors. The resistor value of each component becomes a varistor as a function of microtubules lengths and other factors within the microtubules. Essentially a varistor made of tons of tiny resistors that vary and likely integrate/store information in through alpha and beta tubulin protein helices. It goes super deep but maybe a short extension video would be sweet exploring the latest Anirban has assembled in his book and channel.
Hey now... this is the Science Asylum, not the Physics Asylum. And biochemistry and electrophysiology are both sciences. No need to apologize or to cater to the "but that's not physics" crowd. As a biological sciences and nursing major, I approve of this product and/or service.
Fun fact: "Voltaic element" in Russian is often called "Galvanic element"
Even in the US many industries that have to work with metallurgy at all may find themselves using the word "galvanic" more than "voltaic". Depending on the industry, "galvanized" may even be used more than "volt".
That happens also in Italy. And you can even "galvanize" a person, meaning that you made him very excited and enthusiast about something :)
The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize
They have two different meanings. Galvanic is used to indicate the action of an electric current on something, such as coating a metal through an electrolytic process (galvanic coating) or the electric separation of two bodies (galvanic insulation). Voltaic is referred to the actual electric potential such as in a voltaic cell which means it features an (static) electric potential. The first one can be seen related to current (or the lack of current), while the latter can be only referred to the electric potential. In fact a galvanometer is an instrument that essentially works thanks to the flow of an electric current, while a voltmeter should ideally work without any current.
And X-rays are called Röntgens
This was the best explanation I've seen on the subject in a long time. Thank you this was intriguing.
Thanks! We worked hard on it.
i love these videos where you show the physics and chemistry principles at work in biology. please do more like this one.
Very nice linkage of several different perspectives, that a lot of school teachers might miss without a lot of background training or professional development initiative. It makes me wonder more about how nerve cells evolved. Is it true that sponges don't have them? That in jelly fish the same cells send signals in both directions through the nerve net, while in comb jellies the neurons are directionally specialized? What about echinoderms, the closest phylum to chordates? Molluscs and arthropods have eyes, so their sensori-motor circuits may be similar to vertebrates, did they evolve separately or in some Bilateria ancestor? How did the nervous systems of chordates like salps turn into the vertebrate nervous system. And don't forget the microglia, without the pruning and regenerating they do vertebrates might not have the kind of memory they do. Keep the neurobiology videos coming!
I was wondering : do you know if neurones sometimes exhibit retroaction loops by using their own axones as dendrites ?
The unique thing about your videos is that you don't try to skip any details or say handwavy arguments. Really appreciate your approach.
I have been told quite a few times how neurons transmit data but there's always some hole in their argument. You actually built the circuit and explained almost everything.
I still had one question. It would be great if you could explain the variable resistors.
1)Can I model them with a just a switch and a resistor?
2)How does the time control work?
This is the funniest science channel on TH-cam, thanks Nick.
Wow. Tbh i had no idea how informative this video would be. Articulated perfectly for a child or a science major. Great job
great video, production, visuals, everything.
Thanks!
It's sad that you only have 235k subscriber, you are one of the best science content creators on youtube 🌷
6:59
The excitement in your voice is palpable. I don't you've even sounded that excited when talking about GR.
This was a fun video to make. I learned a lot! There's something special when a video is about something I just learned. The excitement is fresh. I just don't often have time for that. Having a writer for this one _made_ it possible.
Impressive work Nick! Packing this much science in 15 minutes or so must have been a challenge, but the video came out beautifully and it's self contained (you really do not need much external reference to understand it fully)
Also as an Italian, I approve of the Galvani / Super Luigi impression. It was hilarious
Thanks, but I can't take full credit. This video never would have happened if I hadn't hired writers to help me cover topics I have no previous experience with. The writer for this one is credited in the video description 🙂
@@ScienceAsylum good to know you are growing! Keep it up
But also don't abandon your own scripting: you often had some "golden nugget" insight that was unique or at the very least unheard of
@@TheNasaDude Don't worry. I'll still be writing a lot of the videos. I just need (maybe) a few scripts per year to be written by someone else so I can branch out from my personal knowledge... and to free up some time for me to write scripts I've been avoiding because they'd take too long. I'm also very much involved in the scripts they're writing for me. Like you said, I still have to make sure the video has those qualities that my viewers expect. It still has to be a Science Asylum video in the end.
@@ScienceAsylum it seems you've really thought it through. As was expected from the mastermind of an army of clones.
Keep it up, I hope you'll find satisfaction and big success in your TH-cam career
I learn so much from this channel. I love Nick's videos. They're entertaining, and educational. But the real beauty is how he makes his knowledge so easily digestible to the common view.
Please never stop, Nick.
This channel is the first channel in which reply to comment is fastest as compared to any other channel on TH-cam. AWESOME.
The comment section is important to me. It's what separates TH-cam from TV.
Pneuma also became the name of one the best songs Tool has ever summoned.
I remember after they released the album I would listen it everyday on my 30 mile commute to college that semester. Had to leave at 620 AM to get there by 730. The "Wake up" bit always got to me haha. But I'd have to respectfully disagree. Pneuma is good yes, but hard to top Vicarious or Reflection IMO. But I digress.
Are there any major award shows for 'Best Online Educators'? If so, this guy should win an award!!
Very informative! Going to show this to my nephew for a learning opportunity. Thank you for making this!
Awesome !!! .. The analogy between biological components of the cell and the common physical instrument we are so familiar was just too good !!
Thanks a lott and please keep on connecting physics and biology
One valuable thing I learned about neurons (and you did not specifically mention but your circuit model shows) is that they fire, or not; but the level at which neurons fire is VARIABLE. So they work like digital and analog components AT THE SAME TIME...God is awesome...
Clearly explained without being vague. Thank you!
I already knew all you said about neurons biology (I'm a psychologist) but the physics aproach you showed really help me to understand how the process works to an even deeper level which is great.... oh and btw some how you indirectly helped me understand krebs cycle but it'd be great if you made a video about that.
This video brilliantly covers an important component of the first year of the Experimental Psychology degree at Oxford that looks at exactly this mechanism and experiments that tweak with the mechanism (holding gates open, changing firing times, etc.) to see what happens. I know, because my daughter is just starting the 3rd year and we read through numerous papers on this at the time. As usual, Nick, your video explains things beautifully. (Don't even get me started on the appalling fashion for circumlocution in some academic writing!)
This is one of the best youtube episodes I've ever seen. Thank you.
This video is truly fantastic. The best explanation of this phenomenon ever !
Time line adds a lot. Thanks for your excellent visuals.
Humor+Science+videoquality = Science Asylum
Great video as always. I’ve noticed that you are like your own TH-cam comments and your clones are the foils. One million thumbs up for every episode.
Thanks for a super interesting and informative video! As a person who has these metabolics badly out off whack I really appreciate you explaining about them with easy to understand graphics 😊💛.
Always funny, interesting, and educational. I think you deserve awards for these videos. Great job!
When you mentioned "Luigi" and the clone creeped in, that had me cracking up hard 😆🤣😂
Rah-mohn ee Kah-hal. That's how you spell it.
Anyway, been binge-watching A LOT of your videos this week. Your stuff on energy and electricity is way too revealing not to, works really really well to create new intuitions and teach stuff even without saying it at all. And getting insights on things I barely recall from high school like ATP is really handy too! Greetings from Rah-mohn's peninsula!
I'm a new subscriber and I must say the quality of editing in your videos is top notch!
Welcome to the Science Asylum 🤓
It's actually really cool to see an application of circuits like this
I cannot say how funny, balanced and well-made this video is. This is near perfection. I am so glad that you exist as a TH-camr. Always been a fan. Please keep up the good work. And I like these longer videos full of jokes that do the topic justice. (You probably had some help from your wife which is cool).
Q: -70mV is resting because we say so, but its still not neutral. So how come the potassium ion channels naturally jump back to -70mV? Shouldn't it require energy to attain a non neutral state and therefore ion pump action during re-polarization? Or is it just because how we model it that we think of only balancing from overshooting when the batteries turn on? But in reality that doesn't happen and ion pumps and batteries do work during repolarization as well?
The potassium ions exit the cell flowing *down their concentration gradient* once their ion channels open and allow them to do so. This naturally drops the membrane potential since its a rapid exit of positive charge. The potassium ion channels are triggered to open when the voltage is near the top of the "spike."
Hope this helps answer your question.
I concur.
Re : Kieth Van Antwerp,
Kudos , you nailed that answer, infact there is absolutely no reason for me to cop so why the hell am I ?
Well this is TH-cam and we are a bunch of Crazies , or as Nick would, it’s ok to be a little crazy 😜.
Take Care all . R .
The energy comes from the gradient of K+ concentration. K+ has significantly higher concentration inside the cell. It's enough to do work against the electric potential, because the osmotic potential of K+ ions is simply higher in magnitude.
The -70mV is the NET VOLTAGE from ALL the concentration gradients of all ions around the membrane. However, the chemical energies of concentration gradients of individual ions are mutually independent.
Thank You for your replies. I get it. JazakAllah Khairan.
Its basically that during hyperpolarization, the ion pumps don't just make a random configuration that ensures -70mV. They do it carefully ensuring the both ion gradient's are unbalanced (more sodium outside, more potassium inside). That is how the system resets to go again using the gradients to induce the spike. Pretty sneaky, nature.
@The Science Asylum Great video. Oh how I enjoyed learning about electrophysiology and the vaious signal patterns for the systems within the body, and how different pathologies (illness/disease) affect them, when I did my Intensive Care Nursing qualification in the late 70s.
The easiest way to represent this is through what most people have seen, an ECG/EKG and usually from one viewpoint, what we would call a normal heartbeat seen on many products. A standard ECG test is what is called a "12 Lead ECG" which by using a combination of the 10 leads attached to your arms, legs, and across your chest gives us 12 standard views (angles) of the heart's conduction system.
The heart is a complex organ that must work all the time. The pressure wave from the (left ventricular) heart beat can be felt as your pulse. When the Nurse listens to your heart they first concentrate on the "lub dub" (the openin and closing of the valves in the heart, then there are other sounds to lsten for.
If there is a defect in the conduction system caused by a "heart attack" or many other reasons, it can be localised by identifying the particular part of the ECG wave that is disrupted using the patterns formed by the different leads.
A great way (for me) to lose hours on the interwebs.
production quality 10/10
Womp!
Love the explanation, this is a nice change of pace and something I really didn't know much about. You really have to appreciate the speed at which these biochemical processes happen. All this complex machinery, selecting very specific atoms/moecules/proteins and moving them around, we use animations to explain it (good job btw) but all of that is happening in a few microseconds. Boggles the mind.
Yeah, I really needed a change of pace too.
The duplication of DNA, when a cell is preparing to divide in two, is rolling the strand at about 500 "letter" (one of four molecule A, T, C or G) per second.
That is, unzipping the double helix and attaching the correct complementary molecule on each side. Actually, the other side of the helix is read in opposite direction for error correction...
Nick's wife can explain all this...
I am amazed: why don't you have 3 millions subscribers yet.
My guess is his rather unique humour sprinkled across the videos. Not everyone likes that.
That number is very specific, but I have to agree this channel is underrated!
@@Danilego Well, I feel like it should be > 1 mln, but not sure about 5. 3 fits right between.
He just got the crazies equivalence of 3 million subscribers.
@Lee Ruan Are you not enjoying these? Or are you not human?
Man, I find his antics really silly. But his explanations are so great that I can't stop watching!
Great material!
10:04 You could say it propagates down a channel like a radio wave or any alternating voltage through a conductor. Great video on brain cells. You should do a follow up video on how neural networks operate. It would make a good segway into computers and AI.
I’m glad as a long time crazy to see the channel gaining momentum
MORE BIOPHYSICS!
(biomechanics would be nice too)
I appreciate the rotoscoping you did to make sure that your lab coat and question clone's shirt overlap cleanly.
This guy is SEVERELY underrated, maybe on the account of acting as a a joker, but don't be fooled, apart from good laughs he doles out generously, the science popularization content is second to none on TH-cam (no disrespect to VSauce, Veritasium, Up & Atom etc...)
This channel really deserves a million subs
Awesome explanation with the time line
Timelines are important sometimes.
Nick. Lots of Love for your outstanding work. ❤️
Thanks for giving this precious knowledge for free.
I had a question! The model you showed just showed one cell membrane. Does the axon have multiple cell membranes down it's entire length? How do these membranes connect? Is there any common ground between the outsides of the membranes?
Also, maybe unrelated and outside of the scope, how does the cell regulate this? How does it know when to turn on the ion pump? I understand it's probably just a product of evolution (cells that regulated this the correct way were more likely to be selected for), but could you elaborate a bit on some of the chemical processes?
The signal( called action potential) moves through the membrane like a mexican wave moves throughout a stadium. activation of a na channels cause the activation of na channels nearby.
@@botfred743 Nick explained it in terms of cell membranes. I think I just don't understand how it can propagate without the continuous cell membranes, according to the model described in the video.
Subhasish Mukherjee Proteins 3 dimentional structures are determined by the electro-chemical micro environment that they are in. For example Ph, heat, electric charges etc.
The 3 dimensional structure that lets Na through it is only possible in a certain electrical potential. When the micro environmental around a Na channel changes, so does the actual 3D shape of a Na channel and it lets Na ions flow. But this flow of Na ions also changes its micro environment so Na channels that are close to the original one aldo change their 3D structures. This forms a chain reaction of opening and closing. It moves though a cell membrane like a mexican wave. Hope I could be helpfull!!
@@botfred743 That does clear some things up and was very interesting! Thanks for the explanation. But I still feel my original question hasn't really been answered. Down the length of the axon, is there a continuous stream of sodium channels? Where are the channels embedded? I guess I'm just asking how the axon itself is physically structured.
In a single neuron, the axon is a single tubular-ish membrane that extends from the cell body to the target (there are usually a bunch of tiny branches at the end of the axon, and each ends in a knob-shaped terminal). In MOST cases, the axon does not physically contact the next cell. Instead there is a very small gap called the synaptic cleft. The axon terminal uses the electrical impulse as a trigger to release a chemical (neurotransmitter) into the synaptic cleft. That neurotransmitter then binds to the target and the 'communication' has been effected. As a sweeping generalization in human physiology, very large cells, (muscle cells and neurons) use electricity to send signals across their own surface very quickly. But cells talking to other cells is almost always a chemical transfer.
Great video as usual. The title and your physics background made me excited that the video is probably going to cover the non-electrical aspects of action potential , something I also worked on during my PhD :D
Your videos are amazing. This should be paid content.
University standard concepts explained in language a layperson understands. I really hope you get a science medal for your work.
Suggestion for a video on similar subject:
Talk about the integration happening in synapses (same word as integral (and differential) in calculus).
The positive integration were many pulses are needed to trigger the next neuron. But the more you wait, the more you need extra pulses to pump up or recharge the integrator.
The negative is using GABA, the neuroinhibitor to silence the next neuron until the integration time elapse.
Galvanometer is those old way to display sound intensity in old amplifiers.
It was also the way voltmeter were showing voltage before red led or LCD 7 segment display.
I was sceptical about the way a physicist would approach biology. Not anymore.
There is brand new information such as the presence of chlorine atoms around the sodium and potassium.
You'd think with all your clones you could be pumping out 100 videos a day! Thank you, sir!
Excellent video thanks. Kindly consider a followup on two aspects: 1) does the process have errors in the voltage values and the errors propagate over time? Does sleep have anything to do with correcting these errors? 2) What mechanism dictates how long the K/Na channels and ion pumps remain open? In the same species brain, are there neurons that operate on different times and/or voltages?
Immediately rushes to Google "evolution of the nervous system". Thanks now my brain is going down another rabbit hole.
That's a great rabbit hole.
Excelent explanation. This is a fantastic topic and you are a fantastic professor. Good inspiration for another physics professor. Bravo!
The brain consuming 20% (even up to 25%) of the body's energy is the single most important fact not mentioned by ANY "diet" you find online that you have to be careful about
I thought he said "20% of the food you eat".
good overview and graphical consolidation of the model
Thanks!
Where did u get the Luigi costume???!..
Great as always. Even better, amazing! Thanks Nick.
This makes me think about making nanobots out of lipid bi-layers and ions, and then systems to prevent lipid oxidation, and then systems for maintenance, and then nutrition, and then... Maybe it's just better to get a hamster.
It could be fun as a technical exercise. But why reinvent the wheel, when you can reprogram the "nanobots" that are already naturally occurring on this planet. It's like trying to make iron via nuclear fusion, when you can just dig it out of the ground.
@@KohuGaly Why reinvent the wheel? Because the first ones were crude, wooden and always broke. We do things that have been done before in order to learn more. That's just how science rolls. (see what I did there?)
Terminator will have a lipid monolayer so it can walk through fire.
I love your videos! I had to pause this one a few times to let some things sink in.
I have to get hung up on the names because I'm a bio student. 10/10 explanation, and I'm saying this purely through biological viewpoint not only physics viewpoint.
Edit - Even the 3 Na+ and 2 K+ exchange is accurate! Didn't notice that
Pretty useful for me since after studying mathematics and having master in theoretical physics, I give my entering exams to medical school. Thank you