Ion Channels

The whole issue of ion channels is quite interesting. Like many technical words, "ion" comes from Greek where it stands for some form of the verb "to go". (How about an ionized pizza?!). "Issue" also comes from "to go", but not from Greek. In Webster's interpretation, it is some mingled result of Anglo-French utterances. "Issir" (Old French) means to "come out", similar to the more familiar "exit". Ion channels then are the great escape routes of ions. Since their discovery* in 1940, many equations have been written about them. Some of those equations have been solved and many more still have to be, and that's precisely why we need students like you. From times immemorial (1940, that is) many ion channels have been isolated, measured, tested, and used as target for curing disease. Still many aspects of ion channel function, structure, and interactions are up in the air. (Also, no songs have been written about ion channels yet, but just wait for the next Grammy revision). In the lab, we have ways to make such channels from scratch and measure how ions can escape a biological cell, or not. Research on ion channels is so promising that new, breakthrough results are just around the corner. Not to mention your potentially new Grammy.

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*Note on Discovery versus Invention

We try to do both but we should make a clear distinction between them. Discovery means finding something that was there before, such as an ion channel. Invention means to build something from scratch, for example a machine for experimental measurements. The two kinds of activities also mark the distinction between physics and engineering. In engineering, both invention and discovery are good (provided they work!). An engineer might say "I have discovered a way" while meaning "I have invented a method". In Physics, you can't invent, you have to discover. For that you need to observe, measure, and explain mathematically.