From frog nerves to squid axons
Hodgkin trained at Cambridge and initially investigated frog nerves. During a 1937–1938 visit to the United States, he worked with Kenneth Cole at Woods Hole and learned to dissect squid axons. In 1939 he and Huxley recorded electrical activity from inside a giant axon, directly comparing internal and external potentials.
References: [1]
Controlling voltage to compare membrane currents
Postwar research linked Cambridge with the Marine Biological Association laboratory in Plymouth. Voltage-clamp feedback held membrane voltage at selected levels while current changed over time. Altering conditions such as external sodium concentration helped distinguish the ions carrying different current components.
The quantitative model of 1952
Hodgkin and Huxley represented membrane current as capacitive, sodium, potassium and smaller leakage components. Voltage- and time-dependent conductances described the experimental results. Their 1952 paper used the equations to calculate action-potential shape, threshold and propagation, comparing predictions with measured behavior.
References: [3]
Research and scientific institutions
Hodgkin worked on airborne radar during the Second World War before returning to nerve experiments. He subsequently held a Cambridge biophysics professorship and served as president of the Royal Society. The shared 1963 prize recognized investigations of ionic mechanisms in nerve-cell membrane excitation and inhibition.