Gasser (Gasser), Herbert S.

July 5, 1888, Mr.. - May 11, 1963
American physiologist Herbert Spencer Gasser was born in g. Plattvill (Wisconsin) in the family physician Herman Gasser, who emigrated to the United States from the Tyrol (Austria). His mother, nee Jane Elizabeth Grisvold, lived in Connecticut and worked as a teacher in high school Plattvilla, where he subsequently studied at a small r. Then he entered the University of Wisconsin, choosing as the main subject of zoology. In 1910,. He received a Bachelor of Arts, and in 1911. - Master of Arts. While in Wisconsin, he also began studying the physiological department of the university, which had recently been reorganized Joseph Erlanger. While working as an assistant professor of physiology, which was the main source of livelihood, D. at the same time, published several scientific articles on the biochemical and neurological signals that regulate heart rate.
Upon completion of the two-year medical course G. transferred to the medical school at Johns Hopkins for medical degrees, which happened in 1915. He then returned to Wisconsin and in the year studied pharmacology before joined Erlanger in medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, where the latter became head of the department of physiology. U r. and Erlanger had many common scientific interests in t.ch. - Electrical properties of nerve signals.
The fact that nerve impulses (or action potentials) are of electrical nature, has been known since the end of the XVIII. The potential of single nerve cell is very brief and often lasts only a few thousandths of a second, he is also very weak, tk. electrical potential difference of only a few microvolts. Therefore, instruments for the study of such pulses should be highly sensitive and have low inertia. Even while in school at Johns Hopkins G. and his colleague from Wisconsin Sidney Nyukomer began to strengthen the electrical signals from individual nerve fibers with vacuum tubes, similar to those used Guglielmo Marconi for the first radios.
. This work was interrupted by the relocation of Mr.
. in St. Louis. During the First World War, Mr.. Erlanger and concentrated their efforts on the study of traumatic shock, arising due to loss of blood. Parallel D. involved in pharmacological research in the department of Chemical military service in Washington (DC). After the war he and Newcomer published their results on the Strengthening of nerve impulses. In these experiments, for the registration of enhanced electrical signals coming from individual nerve fibers, was used by the traditional spring galvanometer (instrument for measuring the current through the registration of the electromagnetic action). Although this device was suitable for studying the sequence of signals in nerve - as demonstrated by Edgar D. Adrian in his sensational investigations functioning of individual nerve cells, . - He had, . however, . sensitivity, . allows to register the action potential of not more than in the form of simple spike (the main element on the wave of the action potential waveform),
. For dissection of the action potential of the individual components needed such a device that could record a fast sequence of events.
By 1920. in the company 'Western Electric' was invented by a particularly sensitive cathode ray oscilloscope - an instrument for recording vibrations or oscillations. Due to the fact that the company is unwilling to sell its cathode-ray tube (a device similar to that used today in television receivers) G. and Erlanger, physiologists themselves contrived its analogue, using existing laboratory equipment and spent a lot of effort and ingenuity. By connecting the oscilloscope to the amplifier, the first time they were able to get time scanning of individual nerve impulses.
However, the observed record of action potentials was not as clear as they had expected Mr.. and Erlanger. Nevertheless, through careful experimentation, they were able to show that what was previously considered an individual action potential, is actually a combination of impulses from different types of nerves that are connected together in a single fiber. Past studies of various nerves showed that action potentials rapidly propagate along the thick axons (nerve cell branching processes) than along the thin, thus confirming the hypothesis proposed in 1907. Swedish physiologist Gustav Getlinom, but never to be checked. Through the study of Mr.. and his colleagues, action potentials were studied in great detail. Thus, it was shown that the different sensations are transmitted by axons with different diameters and, consequently, with different speeds. Tactile sensations, for example, can be transmitted thick, 'fast' nerves, and pain - the thin, 'slow'. These differences are not constant: a particular sensation can be transmitted at different speeds, and nerve fiber of a certain size may correspond to the axons conveying different types of sensations. All this information is later entered into the theory of nerve conduction, created by Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley.
In 1921, Mr.. G. was appointed professor of pharmacology at Washington University. In 1923 ... 1925., Having received leave from his teaching duties, Mr.. worked in Europe with renowned scientists in t.ch. with Archibald in. Hill and Henry X. Dale. In 1931, Mr.. he became professor of physiology and head of the Medical College of Cornell University, and four years later was invited to the post of Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University). Although he had the opportunity to continue work on the properties of nerve fibers, most of the director's time is spent on administrative duties related to the deteriorating financial situation of the Institute during the economic depression. Since the beginning of the Second World War, many research projects have been suspended because of war-related developments.
G. and Erlanger won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1944. 'for his discoveries related to the highly differentiated functions of individual nerve fibers'. The war prevented in that year held in Stockholm ceremony. However, in broadcast on radio lectures Ragnar Granit of the Karolinska Institute described the achievements of two scientists and the contribution they made to the physiology of the nervous system. The following year, the ceremony resumed, and Mr.. read Nobel lecture on 'The nerve fibers of mammals' ( 'Mammalian Nerve Fibers').
Leaving the position of director of the Rockefeller Institute in 1953, Mr.. continued his research, using an electron microscope for a more detailed study of the differentiation of nerve. G., never married, was a charming and hospitable man, with great warmth of their attitude to a Friend. In his later years he was in bad physical condition due to come upon his stroke.
In 1936 ... 1937. G. was editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Member of the National Academy of Sciences, . American Association for the Advancement of Science, . American Physiological Society, . American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapy, . Association of American Physicians, . American Philosophical Society and Garveevskogo Society, . He received honorary degrees from several universities, . in t.ch,
. Rochester, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Paris.