Discoveries in Basic Cell Function
"Cells Talk to Cells".

There is no doubt that cells talk to cells. The possibility of a human existing without it being completely dependent on cellular communication is so unlikely that it, is beyond plausibility. The process of differentiation and redifferentiation of human structure totally depends on cellular communication. But how do cells do it, and how do we actually know cells are communicating? We have known for many years that the brain has 40 types of ion channels and tens of thousand of each type of channel is in each individual cell. A channel is a tunnel like structure that is submicroscopic. The brain and central nervous system contain an estimated 100 billion cells, each of which can interact with millions upon millions of other cells through highly specific connections in a relay system that dwarfs any super computer.

The channels act like sub-microscopic wires that control the passage in and out of positively and negatively charged particles called ions*. However, unlike a wire, these channels can alter their space or size, thus controlling the ionic flow and, as if that isn't enough, through some type of intelligence that we don not fully understand, these channels can not only control the ionic flow but can distinguish and control the flow of negative verses positive charged ions.

This theory of ionic cellular communication was supported by mathematical computations using atomic physics. But, remained hypothetical until the 1970's. During the 70's, it was determined that all cells have a complete set of ion channels that help them carry out their specific functions. The charged ions that travel through the channels carry information that directs everything that goes on in every cell in the human body.

The aforementioned information was conclusively established by the invention of glass electrodes with microscopic tips called the electrode patch clamp technique, which allows detection of the incredibly infinitesimal electrical currents that pass through a single ion channel. This highly sensitive instrument, developed by two German scientists at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen Germany, is capable of measuring electrical currents of a trillionth of an ampere in the membrane of a cell.

The two German scientists I just mentioned were Dr. Erwin Neher and Dr. Bert Salkmann and they were both awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and received the 1 million dollar prize for their work and discoveries in basic cell function.

*An ion is a positively or negatively charged atom