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A Query to Nobel Laureate Professor MacKinnon: On Resting Potential and Potassium Ion Transport

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2026-04-25

To Professor MacKinnon and his research team,

With the academic spirit of respecting classical experiments, returning to original data, and exploring physiological truths, we hereby address this academic inquiry to your team.

The experimental foundation of modern neuroelectrophysiology originates from Hodgkin and Huxley’s research on the giant axon of Loligo published in 1952. Their original papers clearly document that the measured resting potential under normal physiological conditions ranges from −60mV to −40mV.

Complete original figures and records are available, and no in vivo measurement of −90mV appears in the entire procedure. This stands in fundamental contradiction to the widely cited standard range of −70mV to −90mV in modern textbooks. Theoretical calculations should not replace original experimental measurements.

Across the field of ion channel research, the pioneering founding scientists can no longer respond to subsequent debates. As the recognized academic authority in this field, with profound expertise in the structural and gating mechanisms of ion channels, your team naturally bears the mission of being the arbiter and final authority for the discipline. Only you can clarify disputes, distinguish correct from incorrect models, resolve widespread confusion in later academic circles, and restore clarity to basic science.

Based on the above measured resting potential range and the actual direction of potassium ion transport during the action potential, we raise the following three questions and request clear responses from your team strictly based on the original 1952 experimental data:

1.Resting phase (−60mV to −40mV)What is the net direction of potassium ion flow? Is it stationary equilibrium, continuous outward flow, or continuous inward flow?

2.Depolarization phase (from −40mV to +40mV)What is the net direction of potassium ion transport? Is it outward flow or inward flow?

3.Repolarization phase (from +40mV back to −60mV)What is the net direction of potassium ion movement? Is it inward flow or outward flow?

We fully recognize your team’s landmark contributions to the structural elucidation of ion channels. However, static structural observation is not equivalent to dynamic physiological mechanisms, and the two should not be conflated.

All theoretical models and subsequent interpretations must be strictly grounded in original experiments and adhere to measured data. Arbitrary adjustment of potential ranges or reversal of ion transport logic should be avoided to prevent misleading scientific research and educational systems.

Academic discussion is rooted only in data and measured by truth.

We sincerely request your team to address the above questions directly, based on the classical 1952 experiments, to resolve cognitive discrepancies and jointly uphold the rigor and objectivity of life science research.

Respectfully,

The Inquiring Party

 

References

1.Hodgkin A L, Huxley A F. Currents carried by sodium and potassium ions through the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo[J]. The Journal of Physiology, 1952, 116(4): 449–472.

2.Hodgkin A L, Huxley A F. A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve[J]. The Journal of Physiology, 1952, 117(4): 500–544.

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