ABSTRACT
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley formed one of the most influential partnerships in neuroscience, whose main achievement was a series of five papers, published in 1952, which fully described the biochemical and physiological basis of the action potential. Hodgkin and Huxley also examined the voltage differences inside and outside the giant squid's axon during its resting state. From 1948 to 1951, Hodgkin and Huxley used the voltage clamp technique in conjunction with other procedures, such as varying the ion concentrations surrounding the axon or by applying drugs known to interfere with the movements of specific types of ion across the membrane, to elucidate the action potential. For their brilliant work, Hodgkin and Huxley were awarded with numerous awards including the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1963, along with knighthoods. Hodgkin continued his investigations into the giant squid axon, before moving on in the 1960s to examine ionic currents in the photoreceptors of the eye.
