Archive for July 2010


006 Donnan Equilibrium and Driving Force

Donnan Equilibrium? Driving Force? What in the world do those things mean? Well, you’re about to find out. In this video I explain the concept of Donnan equilibrium and show how that leads to the Driving Force that’s responsible for generating an Action Potential, otherwise known as the Nerve Impulse. If you want to know even more details about Donnan Equilibrium, check out my Notes on the Nervous System.

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005 The isoelectric point of proteins

In this video, I talk about the isoelectric points of the proteins inside the neuron and how that results in the proteins having a negative charge. Understanding the negative charge of proteins inside the cell is important to understanding how neurons function. In the video, I also talk about the pH inside the cell. Just as a brief reminder, the pH tells how acidic or basic a solution is. If you need more info on pH, check out what Wikipedia has to say about pH.

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004 Ion Channels: The Proteins in the Membrane of Neurons

There are 4 important classes of proteins in the membrane of neurons: Passive/Leakage ion channels, Sodium-Potassium pumps, Voltage-gated ion channels, and Ligand-gated ion channels. In order to understand how the neuron functions, we have to understand how those channels work. Watch the following video to learn about these proteins.

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