Definition

1. Proper noun:
   • A British physiologist and Nobel laureate: Alan Hodgkin was a scientist who made fundamental discoveries about how nerve cells work. He is most famous for his collaborative research with Andrew Huxley that explained the mechanism of nerve impulse transmission.

Usage Examples

• Proper noun:
  • The Hodgkin-Huxley model, developed by Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley, is a cornerstone of neuroscience.
  • Alan Hodgkin shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in nerve cell communication.

Advanced Usage

• "Hodgkin-Huxley model": A mathematical model that describes how action potentials in neurons are initiated and propagated. It is a foundational concept in biophysics and computational neuroscience.
  • The Hodgkin-Huxley equations precisely quantify the roles of sodium and potassium ions.

Variants and Related Words

• Hodgkin-Huxley (adj): Pertaining to the joint work or the model developed by Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley.
  • The Hodgkin-Huxley theory revolutionized our understanding of neural excitability.

Synonyms

• Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin: His full title after being knighted.
• Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1963): A descriptive synonym referencing his achievement.

Related Phrases

• Hodgkin cycle: A term sometimes used in the context of the positive feedback mechanism in nerve impulse generation that his work helped elucidate.

Noun

1. English physiologist who, with Andrew Huxley, discovered the role of potassium and sodium atoms in the transmission of the nerve impulse (1914-1998)