Erwin Neher is a German cell physiologist. He was born in 1944 at Landsberg in Germany and trained originally as a physicist in Munich and at the University of Wisconsin. While working at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, he took a year-long sabbatical to work with the physiologist Sakmann at Yale University. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1991 with Bert Sakmann for his studies on ion channels and beta-endorphin. Neher and Sakmann developed the patch-clamp technique in 1976 to measure the electrical activity of very small portions of cell membranes. This technique revolutionized the study of ion channels.
To perform the technique a glasspipette with a tip diameter of about one micrometer is pressed against a cell and slight suction is then applied to seal the cellmembrane against the pipette. The technique allows the flow of ions through a single channel and transitions between different states of a channel to be monitored with a time resolution of microseconds. Using this method, Neher and Sakmann investigated the effect of beta-endorphin on the membrane of cells. Beta-endorphin is a neurohormone secreted by the pituitary gland and an opiate that has been found to play a clinical role in the perception of pain, behavioural patterns, obesity, diabetes, and psychiatric disorders. Neher and Sakmann demonstrated that beta-endorphin acts not only on nerves in the brain to regulate their secretion of neurotransmitters but also, via calcium channels, acts on the walls of arteries in the brain. Research Erwin Neher
Arterial blood pressure is the result of the cardiac output times the resistance the blood encounters while it flows. Blood pressure is defined in terms of systolic and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the maximum pressure produced in the arteries by each heartbeat. Diastolic pressure is the constant pressure maintained in the arteries between heartbeats. Many factors can affect blood pressure: age, exercise, stress, obesity, and medications.
Blood pressure is measured by means of a sphygmanometer and is expressed in millimeters of mercury. Normal blood pressure is considered to be 120 millimeters for systolic pressure and 80 millimeters for diastolic pressure. It is usually expressed in abbreviated form as 120/80. Research Blood Pressure
Cushing's disease (Cushing's syndrome) is a rare condition caused by excess corticosteroid hormones in the body - whether due to hyperfunction of the adrenal cortex or the administration of hormones - characterised chiefly by obesity of the trunk and face, high blood pressure, fatigue, and loss of calcium from the bones (osteoporosis). It is named after H W Cushing who first described the condition in the late 1930's. Research Cushing's Disease
Obesity is the condition when a person has 20 percent or more extra body fat for their age, height, sex, and bone structure. Fat works against the action of insulin and extra body fat is thought to be a risk factor for diabetes. Research Obesity
Coca-Cola is the trade name of a coloured, sweetened, flavoured carbonated drink, originally made with coca leaves and flavoured with cola nuts, and containing caramel and caffeine. It was invented in 1886 and sold in every state of the USA by 1895 and in 155 countries by 1987. Coca-Cola, like other carbonated, sweetened soft-drinks, has little or no nutritional value and in excess can cause dental problems, contribute towards obesity and diabetes. After initial success, Coca-Cola was imitated by numerous manufacturers who were subsequently taken to court and banned from using names similar to the trademarked 'Coca-Cola'. The only real opposition to Coca-Cola came from 'Pepsi-Cola', which in the early 1980's launched a revolutionary marketingstrategy entitled 'The Pepsi Challenge'. The Pepsi Challenge was a blind tasting conducted among the public across the USA and the world in which consumers blind tasted Pepsi against Coca-Cola. The results showed that people preferred the taste of Pepsi, and in 1985 Coca-Cola changed their recipe. This was a marketing disaster for Coca-Cola which rocked the USA and within three months the original Coca-Cola recipe was reinstated and re-branded as 'Classic Coca-Cola'. The marketing war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi rages on, with both side aiming for a total monopoly of the world soft drinks market, and in the USA both companies sponsor schools and local authorities in cynical brand awareness programs that offer schools funding in return for advertising and vending machines within the school. Research Coca-Cola
Cookery is the preparation of food so as to render it more palatable and more digestible. The art is of great importance, not only for comfort but also for health. Food is mainly prepared by submitting it to the action of fire, as by roasting, boiling, stewing, etc. These processes give each a different flavour to food, but result alike in rendering the tissues,bothof animal and vegetable food, softer and much more easily dealt with by the digestive organs.
The art of cookery was carried to considerable perfection amongst some of the ancient nations, as for instance the Egyptians, Persians, and Athenians. Extravagance and luxury at table were notable features of Roman life under the empire. Amongst moderns the Italians were the first to reach a high degree of art in this department. Their cooking, like that of the ancient Romans, is distinguished by a. free use of oil. Italian cookery seems to have been transplanted by the princesses of the House of Medici to France, and was carried there to perhaps the highest degree of perfection; even yet the skill and resource which the French cook shows in dealing often with very slight materials is a highly creditable feature in the domestic economy of the nation. British cookery during the Victorian era was mostly confined to simple, strong, and substantial dishes. The art of roasting was perhaps its strong point. During the late Victorian Era in Britain attempts were made in London and other places to diffuse a knowledge of cookery more widely among the poor. In particular the National School of Cookery, headquarterd at South Kensington, sent forth lecturers and teachers to almost all the chief towns of Great Britain with the result of establishing local centres in many places.
With the advent of the microwave oven during the late 20th century, convenience foods - cooked in a factory and containing large amounts of articifical additives, sugar and salt - which could be quickly heated in a microwave oven without the need to cook as such, resulted in a rapid decline in cookery in Britain, and a noticeable decline in public health with increases of such diseases as obesity and diabetes. Research Cookery
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Abbreviations
Research Erwin Neher
