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Bioelectromagnetism

discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral

and central portions of the nerve cell membrane. Tese scientifc contributions opened further the era

of neurophysiology and electrophysiology. It brought the new patch clamp to the study of excitable cells

as a specialized form of the voltage clamp. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bert Sakmann, German

cell physiologist at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, and Erwin Neher, German biophysicist,

University of Göttingen and Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, developed a new patch

clamp technique. Tey constructed an extracellular small tip (~1–2 μm in diameter) electrode with a

polished surface and pressed it to the surface of an isolated skeletal muscle fber of a frog and electrically

isolated a small patch of membrane (<10 μm²) which laid beneath the opening of the electrode. With this

experimental approach, they were able to monitor single channel ion currents generated by the open­

ing of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (Verkhratsky and Parpura, 2014). Sakmann and Neher received

together the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 for their discoveries concerning the function

of single ion channels in cells.

2.3.3 Pioneers of Electricity in Japan

During the Edo period (1600–1868) in Japan, the contact with the outer world had been prohibited

by the national seclusion policy promulgated in 1639. Dutch, Chinese, and Korean were the only for­

eigners with permitted access to Japan. Dejima, a man-made small island in Nagasaki harbor, was

reclaimed in 1641, and there was the only place opened to the outside. Korean accessed only through

Tsushima Island to Japan. Trough Dejima Western culture was introduced to Japan. From the time

when Dejima was reclaimed, the Dutch remained trading with Japan until 1854. In 1720, the 8th Shogun,

Yoshimune Tokugawa (1684–1751) lifed the ban on the import of Western books, except for the ban on

Christianity. As a result, Western books written in Dutch were gradually imported from the frst half of

the eighteenth century. Te time around the year 1720 corresponded to the time when the frst edition

of Robinson Crusoe (1719), A Journal of the Plague War (1722) both by Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), Lettres

Persanes (1721) by Charles Montesquieu (1689–1755), and the frst edition of Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by

Jonathan Swif (1667–1745) were published. Swif presented satirically in his novel that the fying island

city, Laputa levitated through the use of magnet. During this time, Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) passed

away, and there were many historical well-known active scientists and artists, Anton von Leeuwenhoek

(1632–1723), Edmond Halley (1656–1742), Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–

1750), etc. Tese were the founders of modern natural science and music.

Due to the prohibition of direct contact between Japanese and the outer world, Western science was

imported only through Dutch books, called “Ran-gaku.” Trough the narrow window of the island of

Dejima, Ran-gaku (Dutch Studies) was popular study of Western science during the Edo period. Te

import was more active from the second half of the eighteenth century. During this and the following

times, a wide range of sciences such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, technology, biology, and medi­

cine gained importance for the development of Japanese society.

To contribute to the development of Japanese society, historically recognized are three persons who

will be introduced (Reischauer and Tsuru, 1983). First is William Adams (1564–1620). He was born in

Gillingham, Kent, and a British navigator. He came to Japan in 1600. Te time when he arrived was the

time before the national seclusion policy. Afer a series of mishaps, his disabled ship, the Liefde (belong­

ing to a Rotterdam trading frm in the Netherlands), reached the Usuki province (Now, Oita prefecture),

Kyusyu. Te Liefde is no longer in existence, but the wooden carving fgure of Erasmus that hung on the

stern of the Liefde is still in existence as an important Japanese cultural property. Adams became soon a

key advisor to the 1st Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa (1543–1616). He employed Adams as commercial agent,

interpreter, and shipbuilder. Ieyasu named Adams “Miura Anjin,” afer the location of Miura Peninsula

near Edo (now Tokyo) of the estate given by Ieyasu. In the frst several years of the seventeenth century,

he contributed greatly to the Japanese society. In 2020, it was reported that the human remains believed

to be of Adams were found in Hirado, Nagasaki (Mizuno et al., 2020). Te second person is Engelbert