It is highly probable that the ability to distinguish between living and nonliving objects was already well developed in early prehuman animals. Cognizance of the difference between these two classes of objects, long a part of human knowledge, led naturally to the division of science into two categories: physics and chemistry on the one hand and biology on the other. So deep was this belief in the separateness of physics and biology that, as late as the early nineteenth century, many biologists still believed in vitalism, according to which living phenomena fall outside the confines of the laws of physics. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that Carl Ludwig, Hermann von Helmholz, Emil DuBois-Reymond, and Ernst von Briicke inaugurated a physicochem­ ical approach to physiology in which it was recognized clearly that one set of laws must govern the properties and behavior of all matter, living and nonliving . . The task of a biologist is like trying to solve a gigantic multidimensional crossword fill in the right physical concepts at the right places. The biologist depends on puzzle: to the maturation of the science of physics much as the crossword solver depends on a large and correct vocabulary. The solver of crossword puzzles needs not just a good vocabulary but a special vocabulary. Words like inee and oke are vitally useful to him but are not part of the vocabulary of an English professor.

Inhalt

I. Opposing Concepts in Cell Physiology: History and Background.- 1. The Early History of Cell Physiology.- 1.1. The Evolution of Physiology as the Physics and Chemistry of Living Phenomena.- 1.2. The Cell Theory.- 1.3. The Discovery of Protoplasm.- 1.4. Colloidal Chemistry and the Concept of Bound Water.- 1.5. Traube's Semipermeable Copper Ferrocyanide Gel Membrane and the Introduction of the van't Hoff Equation.- 1.6. Pfeffer's Membrane Theory.- 1.7. Summary.- 2. Evolution of the Membrane and Bulk Phase Theories.- 2.1. Concepts of the Nature of the Plasma Membrane.- 2.1.1. The Lipoidal Theory of Overton.- 2.1.2. Mosaic Membranes with Pores.- 2.1.3. Membranes with Charged Pores and Selective Ionic Permeability.- 2.1.4. The Paucimolecular Membrane of Davson and Danielli.- 2.2. Cellular Electrical Potentials and Swelling in the Context of the Membrane Theory.- 2.2.1. Early History of Cellular Electrical Potentials.- 2.2.2. Bernstein's Membrane Theory and the Diffusion Potential.- 2.2.3. The Cremer-Haber-Klemensiewicz Theory for Glass Electrodes.- 2.2.4. Phase Boundary Potentials and the Baur-Beutner Controversy.- 2.2.5. Michaelis's Theory of the Cation-Permeable Collodion Membrane.- 2.2.6. The Donnan Theory of Membrane Equilibrium.- 2.3. Cellular Ionic Distribution in the Context of the Membrane Theory.- 2.3.1. Boyle and Conway's Theory of Membrane Potentials, Ionic Distribution, and Swelling'.- 2.4 Early Criticisms of and Experimental Evidence against the Membrane Theory.- 2.5. Inquiries into the Nature of Protoplasm.- 2.5.1. Protoplasm as a Structural Substance.- 2.5.2. Fischer's Theory of Protoplasm.- 2.5.3. Lepeschkin's Vitaid Theory.- 2.5.4. Nasonov's Phase Theory of Permeability and Bioelectric Potentials.- 2.5.5. Bungenberg de Jong's Concept of Protoplasm as a Coacervate.- 2.6. Early Inquiries into the Physical State of Water and Ions in Living Cells.- 2.6.1. Bound Water.- 2.6.2. Bound K+.- 2.7. Rejection of the Bulk Phase Theories.- 2.7.1. Evidence against the Bulk Phase Theories.- 2.7.2. Evidence against the Concepts of Bound K+ and Bound Water.- 2.8. Summary.- 3. The Emergence of the Steady-State Membrane Pump Concept.- 3.1. Major Developments Providing the Background for the Acceptance of the Membrane Pump Theory.- 3.1.1. The Disproof of the Original Equilibrium Membrane Theory.- 3.1.2. The Concept That the Constituents of Living Beings Are in a State of Dynamic Equilibrium.- 3.1.3. The Hill-Embden Controversy and "A-lactic Acid" Muscle Contraction.- 3.1.4. The High-Energy Phosphate Bond as the Immediate Source of Energy for Biological Work Performance, Including Ionic Pumping.- 3.2. The Postulation of the Na+ Pump.- 3.3. Arguments and Evidence in Support of the Na+ Pump Theory.- 3.3.1. The Dependence of Ionic Distribution on Continued Metabolic Activities and Normal Temperature.- 3.3.2. The Energy Requirement of the Na+ Pump Appears to Be Adequately Met by Cell Metabolism.- 3.3.3. Active Solute Transport by Epithelial Tissues and Giant Algal Cells.- 3.4. The Further Development of the Membrane Theory of Cellular Electrical Potential in the Context of the Membrane Pump Theory: The Ionic Theory of Hodgkin, Katz, and Huxley.- 3.4.1. The Hodgkin-Katz-Goldman Equation.- 3.4.2. The Hodgkin-Huxley Theory of the Action Potential.- 3.4.3. The Hodgkin-Huxley Theory of Permeability Changes during the Action Potential.- 3.4.4. Experimental Confirmation of the Membrane Theory of the Resting and Action Potentials.- 3.5. Summary.- 4. The Reemergence of the Bulk Phase Theories.- 4.1. Kamnev's Study of Sugar Distribution in Frog Muscle.- 4.2. Troshin's Sorption Theory.- 4.2.1. Osmotic Behavior of Living Cells.- 4.2.2. Cells as Colloidal Coacervates.- 4.2.3. Solute Exclusion and Accumulation.- 4.3. Rekindled Doubts about the Revised Membrane Pump Theory.- 4.3.1. Discovery of the Non-Donnan Distribution of Many Permeant Substances.- 4.3.2. Reinvestigation of the Question of Whether or Not Cells Have Enough Energy to Operate the Postulated Na+ Pump.- 4.4. Ling's Fixed-Charge Hypothesis.- 4.4.1. A New Molecular Mechanism for the Selective Accumulation of K+ over Na+ in Living Cells.- 4.4.2. Some Distinctive Features of Ling's Fixed-Charge Hypothesis.- 4.5. Molecular Mechanisms of Selective Ionic Permeability.- 4.5.1. The Membrane Carrier Model.- 4.5.2. Ling's Fixed-Charge Hypothesis.- 4.6. The Surface Adsorption Theory of the Cellular Resting Potential.- 4.6.1. Three Historical Models: Glass, Oil, and Collodion.- 4.6.2. The Surface Adsorption Theory of Cellular Electrical Potentials.- 4.7. Summary.- 5. Experimental Tests of the Alternative Theories.- 5.1. Evidence Supporting the Membrane Pump Theory.- 5.1.1. Full Ionic Dissociation of K+ Salts in Water at Ionic Strengths Similar to Those in Living Cells.- 5.1.2. High Mobility of K+ in Living Cells.- 5.1.3. High K+ Activity in Living Cells.- 5.1.4. Genetic Control of Permeases or Sugar Pumps.- 5.1.5. Na+,K+-Activated ATPase as the Na+ Pump.- 5.1.6. "High Energy" Contained in the Phosphate Bonds of ATP Provides the Immediate Source of Energy for Na+ Pumping..- 5.2. Evidence against the Pump Hypothesis.- 5.2.1. There Is Not Enough Energy to Operate the Na+ Pump.- 5.2.2. Reassessment of the High Energy of the "High-Energy Phosphate Bond".- 5.2.3. Failure to Demonstrate Selective K+ Accumulation and Na+ Exclusion by a Cytoplasm-Free Squid Axon Membrane Sac.- 5.2.4. Failure to Prove Selective Ion Pumping in Membrane Vesicles.- 5.2.5. Studies of the Red Cell Ghost.- 5.2.6. Ouabain-Sensitive Selective Accumulation of K+ over Na+ in an Effectively Membrane (Pump)-less Open-Ended Muscle Cell (EMOC) Preparation.- 5.3. Summary.- II. The Association-Induction Hypothesis.- 6. The Association-Induction Hypothesis I. Association of Ions and Water with Macromolecules.- 6.1. The Living State.- 6.1.1. The General Concept of a High-Energy Resting State.- 6.1.2. The Major Components of Living Systems.- 6.1.3. Protoplasm and the Living State.- 6.2. Association of Ions.- 6.2.1. Enhanced Counterion Association in a Fixed-Charge System.- 6.2.2. The Theory of Selective Ionic Adsorption and Its Variation with the Electron Density or c- Value of the Fixed Anionic Sites.- 6.2.3. Reversal of Ionic Selectivity Ratios: Comparison of Theory with Experiment in Ion Exchange Resins.- 6.2.4. Generalized Relations between c-Value and Adsorption Constants.- 6.2.5. Salt Linkages, c-Value, and the in Vitro Demonstration of Selective Na+ and K+ Adsorption on Isolated Proteins.- 6.3. Association of Water.- 6.3.1. Histori…