Sir John Eccles Biography

Sir John Carew Eccles was a neurophysiologist from Australia who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on synapse in the central nervous system. He shared the prize with two other scientists, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley. His research centered on the complex way in which the human brain works and the neurophysiologic processes which control thought processes. He discovered the chemical reactions allow or suppress the impulses sent to the nerve cells or neurons in the brain. Though he believed till 1949 that the synaptic transmission was mainly due to electrical impulses rather than chemical, his experiments later proved his hypothesis otherwise. After conducting various experiments with Bernard Katz, he came to the conclusion that these transmissions had a chemical side too. He proved that the communication between two adjacent nerve cells is done by the release of chemicals into the synapse or the gap between the two cells. Every reaction of the brain was caused by a distinct chemical reaction which caused an electrical impulse to be passed from one cell to another. Apart from the research on synapses he also played an important role in the development of neuroscience. His experiments helped in the future treatment of nervous diseases and brain, heart and kidney research.