Alan R Kay

@alanrkay
87 Followers
95 Following
24 Posts
Neurobiologist at the University of Iowa. Work on #drosophila #brains, #pump-leak models, #fluorescent #sensors, and other stuff. Opinions my own. #potassium #sodium #chloride #membranes #osmosis #pulsatility #mitochondria
Labhttps://biology.uiowa.edu/people/alan-kay
Publicationshttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KlnL3J8AAAAJ&hl=en
Alan R KayAug 26, 2023
It is surprising that #osmosis, a phenomenon so central to biology, has been cloaked in misunderstanding for so long. Jerry Manning & I show that the most plausible account for what drives water fluxes is one put forward by Peter Debye in 1923: https://bit.ly/3PbqRJ8
The physical basis of osmosis | Journal of General Physiology | Rockefeller University Press

It is surprising that osmosis, a phenomenon so central to biology, has been cloaked in misunderstanding for so long. The authors show that the most plausible ac

Alan R KayApr 15, 2023
An exhibit about Emmy Noether has just opened in the library of the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris
Show threadAlan R KayJan 5, 2023
Picking up on this trace in 1968 Gerald (Jerry) Manning (Rutgers Univ) extended the Debye model to steady water fluxes, but again this work fell on deaf ears.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1670468?casa_token=COUHW--0yBYAAAAA:z1ja0_HxLlz5tpiaRM1MMrZHTIZL2pIXzUMrIJDr6jtDSbCn5yXENIki2mdp-GDLRmV386APlFo
After tracking down Debye's original paper I was very fortunate to be able to begin a collaboration with Jerry and I'm chuffed to release a preprint of our work
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.02.522450v1
Binary Diffusion and Bulk Flow through a Potential‐Energy Profile: A Kinetic Basis for the Thermodynamic Equations of Flow through Membranes

The flow of a two‐component solution through a potential‐energy profile is analyzed in detail. The thermodynamic flow equations of Kedem and Katchalsky are derived, along with the Onsager reciproca...

AIP Publishing
Alan R KayJan 5, 2023
It's extraordinary that the physical basis of #osmosis, one of the most important forces in biology, has been and is still widely mischaracterized in textbooks. One hundred years ago Peter #Debye published a simple kinetic theory that accounts for osmosis.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/recl.19230420711?casa_token=OLs0ScDPfJ0AAAAA:C_ALin1iXgBxXfhDX5b2OtSXksF_NkMg2EeElK-cldAVDRbytU0NuO3IcV93DIMLnbsslrwK9gEIu8M
It is remarkable that despite Debye's renown as a physicist his paper slipped into oblivion except for traces in a textbook.
https://books.google.fr/books/about/Physical_Chemistry.html?id=0S1RAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
Alan R KayDec 21, 2022
Venkatesh MurthyDec 21, 2022

I wrote a tribute to Chuck Stevens, an incredible scientist who passed away recently. I was fortunate to work with, and learn from, him over the years. I will deeply miss him. #biophysics #neuroscience

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)01074-1

Alan R KayDec 13, 2022
Getting under the hood of the #pump-leak mechanism including #cation-chloride cotransporters, with analytical mathematical expressions, & getting to the bottom of the pesky #Donnan effect. Wonderful collaborating with with Zahra Aminzare
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.08.519683v1.article-metrics
Alan R KayDec 5, 2022

Vale, Hans Magnus #Enzensberger

A.M.T (1912-1954) - from his collection Mausoleum

It's certain that he never read a newspaper; that he knitted his gloves himself; ... whenever he broke his stubborn silence at meals, he fell into shrill stuttering or a cackling laugh. His eyes were a radiant, inorganic blue, like stained glass.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/world/europe/hans-magnus-enzensberger-dead.html

Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Leading Light in German Letters, Dies at 93

Poet, essayist, journalist and social critic, he held wide influence among a postwar literary generation with works as intellectual as they were political.

Alan R KayDec 2, 2022
Matteo CarandiniDec 2, 2022
Dear fellow scientists, I know it's been said many times before but please please make a Google Scholar page and make it public? It makes life so much easier when going through tens and tens of unknown names (like I'm doing right now to help select symposia for a conference): one can find your latest papers, your most cited papers, etc. And if you have some principled objection to Scholar or to their stock-market-style citation counter, I get it and that's fine, but at least do orcid.org?
Alan R KayNov 30, 2022
Michael P.H. StumpfNov 30, 2022
What are your favourite classic papers (topic, style, substance, inspiration) that you revisit?
Mine are:
Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics https://www.nature.com/articles/261459a0
More is different https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.177.4047.393
The catastrophe controversy https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03023037
Network thermodynamics https://www.nature.com/articles/234393a0
I’m looking for holiday reading.
Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics - Nature

First-order difference equations arise in many contexts in the biological, economic and social sciences. Such equations, even though simple and deterministic, can exhibit a surprising array of dynamical behaviour, from stable points, to a bifurcating hierarchy of stable cycles, to apparently random fluctuations. There are consequently many fascinating problems, some concerned with delicate mathematical aspects of the fine structure of the trajectories, and some concerned with the practical implications and applications. This is an interpretive review of them.

Nature
Alan R KayNov 28, 2022
Sean CarrollNov 28, 2022
Mindscape 219 | Dani Bassett @[email protected] and Perry Zurn @[email protected] on the Neuroscience and Philosophy of Curiosity. First time with twins as guests on the #MindscapePodcast!
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2022/11/28/219-dani-bassett-and-perry-zurn-on-the-neuroscience-and-philosophy-of-curiosity/
219 | Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn on the Neuroscience and Philosophy of Curiosity – Sean Carroll