Joseph Erlanger shared the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Herbert Gasser for their work on the different functions of nerve fibers. They used an oscilloscope to measure electrical impulses in nerves and discovered that nerve fibers of different thicknesses transmit signals at different speeds — providing the first clear picture of how the nervous system processes different types of sensation. Erlanger was born in San Francisco on January 5, 1874.
January 5, 1874
152 years ago
What Else Happened on January 5
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Ludovico Sforza had been ruling Milan as regent when he invited the French king Charles VIII into Italy in 1494 — hoping French muscle would protect him from ri…
Felix Manz helped found the Anabaptist movement in Zurich — one of the earliest groups to insist on adult baptism and the separation of church and state. The ci…
A great fire swept through Eindhoven in January 1554, destroying most of the small Dutch market town. It was one of several catastrophic fires that struck Eindh…
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