Herbert Gasser facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Herbert Spencer Gasser
|
|
|---|---|
Gasser in 1944
|
|
| Born | July 5, 1888 Platteville, Wisconsin, U.S.
|
| Died | May 11, 1963 (aged 74) New York City, New York, U.S.
|
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
| Known for | Action potentials Nerve fiber analysis |
| Awards | Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1944) Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) (1946) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology |
| Institutions | Rockefeller University Cornell University Washington University in St. Louis |
Herbert Spencer Gasser (born July 5, 1888 – died May 11, 1963) was an American doctor and scientist. He is famous for his important discoveries about how our nerves work.
In 1944, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shared this big award with another scientist named Joseph Erlanger.
Understanding Nerve Signals
Herbert Gasser and Joseph Erlanger studied how nerves send messages. They found that different types of nerve fibers send signals at different speeds. This was a very important discovery.
How Nerves Send Messages
Our bodies are full of tiny wires called nerve fibers. These fibers carry electrical signals. These signals tell our brain what we are feeling or what to do. For example, they tell us if something is hot or cold. They also tell our muscles to move.
Gasser and Erlanger used special tools to measure these signals. They learned that some nerve fibers are fast, and some are slow. This means different types of information travel at different speeds.
Impact on Pain and Reflexes
Their work helped us understand how we feel pain. It also explained how our bodies have quick, automatic reactions called reflexes. For example, pulling your hand away from something hot is a reflex.
Knowing about these different nerve speeds helped other scientists. It led to many new discoveries in the field of how our nervous system works. Their research showed that each nerve fiber has a special job.
See also
In Spanish: Herbert Spencer Gasser para niños
