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Show l07 and admitted in the preface of the book that it should have been included 51 in the book too. In late l954, Eyring was working on the mechanism of stress and inflammation with Dr. Thomas F. Dougherty of the University of Utah's medical school. They proposed a theory of stress and inflam- mation in which stress sets off a chain reaction among body cells with histamine acting as the destructive agent and with the resulting damage as the inflammation. The theory attracted national attention, and their work was featured in the Medicine section of Iim§_magazine in early l955.52 The next decade brought further research into such things as sodium transport in isolated frog skin, molecular aspects of heart behavior, biogenesis, physical chemistry of nerve action, imidazole pump model of electron transport, the thermodynamics of living systems, the physical sciences in biomedical research and the sensitivity and reliability of the senses to name a few.53 To explain the marvelous ability of our nose to distinguish between the odors of an estimated 15,000 different molecules depends on the state of nerve membranes, according to Eyring. The sensitivity of the nerve results from the fact that a very small potential change from a weak stimulus makes the nerve membrane permeable and reliability comes about because the nerve in the permeable state acts as a counter for the molecules which cause permeability of the membrane.54 From the publication of the book in l954 to 1969, Eyring's interest in the physical chemistry of biological reactions was what we might term sporadic. again. Stover. In l969, however, he began to work intensively on the subject The stimulus for his renewed interest came from Dr. Betsy Jones Stover had come to Eyring with the results of twenty years of experiments in which beagles were irradicated with various bone seeking |
