Shocking Idea -- Nerves Might Run on Sound

I first posted this article a couple of months back. It was greeted
with hoots of derision from our scientifically oriented posters, so I
abandoned the thought. But after watching the birds that have lived
in my backyard -- begin to slowly disappear for the winter -- I
decided to re-read the article.

I think the Sound Theory opens up a way of explaining things that have
been unexplainable. I've tried to accept the notion that everything
in the Universe is based (in some way) on electric impulses. But
that's nonsense. What was the first event in the history of the
Universe ? The Big Bang. So Noise was the Genesis of all life as we
know it. That certainly indicates it probably could still be the
motivating force behind all living things in the universe and on the
Earth. Surely that Big bang has not grown entirely silent. Maybe
it must still be ricocheting through the Universe - passing along it's
ancient wisdom. .

I think science is guilty of being a victim of the old question --
"If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a
noise" ? Just because we don't hear it is no sign that a noise does
not exist which may be heard by other living creatures.

I would propose that something in the living cell has receptors that
can hear and process sound to the benefit of the host organism. Take
the woodpeckers that left my yard last week for the first time since
March. How did they know winter is approaching and it was time to
head South ? All my life I have heard inane reasons like --

(1) instinct (2) the days are getting shorter (3) solar impulse
received by their brain.

Obviously it is "none of the above". How can a bird know the days
are getting shorter if I have trouble noticing that fact ? Do they
check their watches periodically ? Do they watch the Weather
Channel ?

No ! But they could be hearing noise that is telling them to head
South. Where would that noise be processed ? In the brain or in
the cells ?

Suicides have always puzzled me. Why do people take away their
most valued possession ? Reading a biography of an author whose
work I respect, I learned that the reason he killed himself was
because he had been hearing voices that told him to do so. His book
had just been received to great reviews, he had everything to live
for and as he was preparing to meet his publishers. He went into a
bedroom and shot himself. We always dismiss "voices" as a sure sign
of insanity. And well they may be. BUT -- maybe they are also
sometimes picked up by sensitive brains from an outside source we
don't understand.

Perhaps having ears prevents us from picking up the quieter noise
heard by lower orders.

Think of all the sounds around us that we can't hear unless we have
the proper listening device. Such as a radio or TV. Maybe living
cells have a built in device.

Actually I have no answers at all. But I would love to see a modern
day Newton or Galileo pick up this subject. I really think there is
something there that will open up a new world of understanding. And
possibly even the much sought after "fourth dimension".

Thanks,
Gary
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A Shocking Idea: Nerves Might Run on Sound, Not Electricity
Brandon Keim Email 06.11.07 | 2:00 AM

Most people know that nerves work by passing electrical currents from
cell to cell. But you might be surprised to learn that no one knows
exactly how anesthetics stop nerves from carrying pain signals.

That's why two scientists believe that we really don?t know how nerves
work after all.

According to their controversial theory, electricity is just a side
effect of how nerves really operate: by conducting high-density waves
of pressure that resemble sound reverberating through a pipe.

"Nerves are supposed to work like a series of electrical transistors,"
said Andrew Jackson, a physicist at the Niels Bohr Institute in
Copenhagen, Denmark. "This picture is at best flawed."

If correct, Jackson and Thomas Heimburg, a Niels Bohr biophysicist and
co-author of a recent paper describing their theory, would turn a
long-held (and Nobel Prize-winning) theory on its head.

Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley won the Nobel Prize in physiology or
medicine in 1963 for describing the electric transmission of impulses
along nerves -- a now widely accepted theory known as the
Hodgkin-Huxley model.

But Jackson and Heimburg say that the inability to explain how
anesthesia works, combined with other counterintuitive aspects of the
theory, mean that nerves don't rely on electricity to carry messages.

For example, the Hodgkin-Huxley model still hasn't accounted for
observations made a century ago by scientists Hans Meyer and Charles
Overton. They demonstrated that the strength of an anesthetic could be
predicted by its solubility in olive oil rather than its chemical
structure. The more soluble the anesthetic, the stronger it was.

Since olive oil is similar to the lipid molecules that make up nerve
cells, Jackson and Heimburg started questioning the generally accepted
belief that anesthetics block electrical pulses by fitting themselves
into pain receptors on cells. That seems next to impossible, they
said, because anesthetic molecules come in many shapes and sizes, and
it's difficult to imagine that they all happen to physically fit into
all receptors.

"That is about as likely as tossing a coin 1,000 times and having it
come down heads every time," Jackson said.

Their theory, published in the Biophysical Journal, explains how
nerves and anesthetics work as follows: Nerves are made of lipids that
are liquid at body temperature. A yet-to-be-defined mechanism creates
high-pressure, semisolid waves that move through the cells, delivering
messages.

Anesthetics, they suggest, lower the temperature at which lipids
become solid, making it difficult for the waves to form, thereby
preventing nerves from sending pain signals. They also suggest that as
the waves travel, they change the shape of the cell membrane,
producing the electrical pulse that scientists currently mistake for
the primary function of nerve cells.

The theory has not been well received. Few are convinced that the
inexplicability of anesthetics is reason to dismiss the Hodgkin-Huxley
model. One molecular biologist and ion channel expert even refused to
comment on record about the theory because he found it too
preposterous.

"The fact that we don't know how anesthetics work make it a nice
target for anybody with a new hypothesis," said Roderic Eckenhoff, a
University of Pennsylvania molecular pharmacologist. "But the
Hodgkin-Huxley model has been pretty well vetted."

The mystery of anesthetics, however, is not the only inconsistency
that Jackson and Heimburg point out.

Another example is the fact that as electricity travels through the
nerve, heat is released and then reabsorbed. This, said Jackson,
contradicts the known behavior of electrical currents through a
resistor.

"The heat generated by such a process is dissipated and not
reabsorbed," he said.

Scientists say that until Jackson and Heimburg can provide empirical
data to support their theory, it will remain a fringe idea.

"I appreciate the place for theory in advancing science, but the
weight of evidence is soundly on the side of electricity," said
Eckenhoff. "When they provide some experimental evidence consistent
with their theory, that'd be great."

Jackson and Heimburg say that's exactly what they're hoping will
follow the publication of their theory. "We hope that people will
investigate the possibility," Jackson said.

If it turns out they're right, he said, "We might be able to help
design cures for neurological problems and design better anesthetics."

Meanwhile, the duo admit they very well might be wrong, but they
believe their theory is worth testing.

"We might be wrong," Jackson said, "but we're not crazy."

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/nerve_communication


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