Eccles, John Carew

From New World Encyclopedia
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{{epname|Eccles, John Carew}}
'''Sir John Carew Eccles''' (January 27, 1903 – May 2, 1997) was an [[Australia]]n [[neurophysiologist]] who won the 1963 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his work on the [[synapse]]. He shared the prize together with [[Andrew Fielding Huxley]] and [[Alan Lloyd Hodgkin]]. Eccles was the recipient of many honors, including a knighthood in 1958. In 1963 he was named "[[Australia|Australian]] of the Year".  On the one hand, his research contributed significantly to knowledge of the neorophysical processes by which thought is processed, and to unravelling the complexities of the human brain.  On the other hand, he also deleivered the [[Gifford Lectures]] on Natural Theology (in 1977) when he expressed the view that science alone, without theology, could not fully explain the mystery of life, and he affirmed the reality of the soul.
 
  
 
[[image:Eccles.jpg|thumb|John Eccles, shown here at his lab bench]]
 
[[image:Eccles.jpg|thumb|John Eccles, shown here at his lab bench]]
 
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'''Sir John Carew Eccles''' (January 27, 1903 – May 2, 1997) was an [[Australia]]n [[neurophysiologist]] who won the 1963 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his work on the [[synapse]]. He shared the prize together with [[Andrew Fielding Huxley]] and [[Alan Lloyd Hodgkin]]. Eccles was the recipient of many honors, including a knighthood in 1958. In 1963 he was named "[[Australia|Australian]] of the Year".  On the one hand, his research contributed significantly to knowledge of the neorophysical processes by which thought is processed, and to unravelling the complexities of the human brain.  On the other hand, he also delivered the [[Gifford Lectures]] on Natural Theology (in 1977) when he expressed the view that science alone, without theology, could not fully explain the mystery of life, and he affirmed the reality of the soul.
  
 
==Biography==
 
==Biography==
Eccles was born in [[Melbourne]], Australia. He attended [[Melbourne High School (Victoria)|Melbourne High School]] and graduated from [[Melbourne University]] in 1925. He was awarded a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] to study under [[Charles Scott Sherrington]] at [[Oxford University]], where he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] in 1929. In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during [[World War II]]. After the war, he became a professor at the [[University of Otago]] in [[New Zealand]]. From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a professor at the [[Australian National University]]. He won the [[Australian of the Year Award]] in 1963, the same year he won the Nobel Prize. In 1966 he moved to the [[United States]] to work at the [[Institute for Biomedical Research]] in [[Chicago]]. From 1968, until his retriement, he was a professor at the [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|University at Buffalo]]. He retired in 1975. After retirement, he moved to [[Switzerland]] and wrote on the [[mind-body problem]].
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Eccles was born in [[Melbourne]], Australia. He attended [[Melbourne High School (Victoria)|Melbourne High School]] and graduated from [[Melbourne University]] in 1925. He was awarded a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] to study under [[Charles Scott Sherrington]] at [[Oxford University]], where he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] in 1929. In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during [[World War II]]. After the war, he became a professor at the [[University of Otago]] in [[New Zealand]]. From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a professor at the [[Australian National University]]. He won the [[Australian of the Year Award]] in 1963, the same year he won the Nobel Prize. In 1966 he moved to the [[United States]] to work at the [[Institute for Biomedical Research]] in [[Chicago]]. From 1968, until his retirement, he was a professor at the [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|University at Buffalo]]. He retired in 1975. After retirement, he moved to [[Switzerland]] and wrote on the [[mind-body problem]].
  
 
===Family===
 
===Family===
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* Eccles, John C. 1980. ''The Human Psyche. Gifford lectures, 1978-1979''. New York: Springer International, ISBN 9780387099545  
 
* Eccles, John C. 1980. ''The Human Psyche. Gifford lectures, 1978-1979''. New York: Springer International, ISBN 9780387099545  
 
* Eccles, John C. 1994. ''How the self controls its brain.'' Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 9780387562902
 
* Eccles, John C. 1994. ''How the self controls its brain.'' Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 9780387562902
* Eccles, John C. 1985. ''Mind and brain the many-faceted problems.'' New York: Paragon House Publishers. ISBN 9780892260164
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* Eccles, John C. 1985. ''Mind and Brain: The many-faceted problems.'' New York: Paragon House Publishers. ISBN 9780892260164
 
* Popper, Karl Raimund, and John C. Eccles. 1977. ''The self and its brain.'' New York: Springer International. ISBN 9783540083078
 
* Popper, Karl Raimund, and John C. Eccles. 1977. ''The self and its brain.'' New York: Springer International. ISBN 9783540083078
 
*Eccles, John C., and Daniel N. Robinson. 1984. ''The wonder of being human our brain and our mind.'' New York, N.Y.: Free Press. ISBN 9780029088609
 
*Eccles, John C., and Daniel N. Robinson. 1984. ''The wonder of being human our brain and our mind.'' New York, N.Y.: Free Press. ISBN 9780029088609
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==Notes==
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
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==References==
 
==References==
*Cousins, Norman Nobel ''Prize Conversations: With Sir John Eccles, Roger Sperry, Ilya Prigogine, Brian Josephson'' (Isthmus conversations),  San Francisco: Saybrook Pub, 1985 ISBN  978-0933071025   
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* Cousins, Norman Nobel ''Prize Conversations: With Sir John Eccles, Roger Sperry, Ilya Prigogine, Brian Josephson'' (Isthmus conversations),  San Francisco: Saybrook Pub, 1985 ISBN  978-0933071025   
*Curtis DR, and P Andersen. 2001. "Sir John Carew Eccles, A.C.." ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society''. Royal Society (Great Britain). 47: 159-87.
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* Curtis DR, and P Andersen. 2001. "Sir John Carew Eccles, A.C.." ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society''. Royal Society (Great Britain). 47: 159-87.
*Heilbron, J. L. 2003. ''The Oxford companion to the history of modern science''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195112290
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* Heilbron, J. L. 2003. ''The Oxford companion to the history of modern science''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195112290
 
* Pratt, David "John Eccles on Mind and Brain", November 1997. Original article published in ''Sunrise'', June/July 1995 [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/eccles.htm John Eccles on Mind and Brain] Retrieved October 19, 2007.
 
* Pratt, David "John Eccles on Mind and Brain", November 1997. Original article published in ''Sunrise'', June/July 1995 [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/eccles.htm John Eccles on Mind and Brain] Retrieved October 19, 2007.
 
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* Scott, John. 2006. ''"BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS - Sir John Carew Eccles." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. '' 150 (4): 673. ISSN 0003-049X
*Scott, John. 2006. ''"BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS - Sir John Carew Eccles." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. '' 150 (4): 673. ISSN 0003-049X
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* Stuart DG, and PA Pierce. 2006. "The academic lineage of Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-1997)." ''Progress in Neurobiology''. 78 (3-5).
*Stuart DG, and PA Pierce. 2006. "The academic lineage of Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-1997)." ''Progress in Neurobiology''. 78 (3-5).
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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Revision as of 01:54, 23 October 2007

John Eccles, shown here at his lab bench

Sir John Carew Eccles (January 27, 1903 – May 2, 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize together with Andrew Fielding Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin. Eccles was the recipient of many honors, including a knighthood in 1958. In 1963 he was named "Australian of the Year". On the one hand, his research contributed significantly to knowledge of the neorophysical processes by which thought is processed, and to unravelling the complexities of the human brain. On the other hand, he also delivered the Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology (in 1977) when he expressed the view that science alone, without theology, could not fully explain the mystery of life, and he affirmed the reality of the soul.

Biography

Eccles was born in Melbourne, Australia. He attended Melbourne High School and graduated from Melbourne University in 1925. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study under Charles Scott Sherrington at Oxford University, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1929. In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during World War II. After the war, he became a professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a professor at the Australian National University. He won the Australian of the Year Award in 1963, the same year he won the Nobel Prize. In 1966 he moved to the United States to work at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago. From 1968, until his retirement, he was a professor at the University at Buffalo. He retired in 1975. After retirement, he moved to Switzerland and wrote on the mind-body problem.

Family

Eccles married his first wife, Irene Frances Miller of Motueka, New Zealand in 1928. They had four sons and five daughters. Two of his sons are also scientists, with Ph. D.'s. One is a radar meteorologist. One of his daughters, Rosamond, has collaborated with him in much of his neurophysiological research. In 1968, Irene and John Eccles were divorced in and he married Helena Táboríková of Prague, Czechoslovakia, who is an M.D. of Charles University and a neurophysiologist. They also collaborated in their research.[1].

Death

He died in 1997 in Locarno, Switzerland.

Research

In the early 50's, Eccles and his colleagues performed the research that would win Eccles the Nobel Prize. To study synapses in the peripheral nervous system, Eccles and colleagues used the stretch reflex as a model. This reflex is easily studied because it consists of only two neurons: a sensory neuron (the muscle spindle fiber) and the motor neuron. The sensory neuron synapses onto the motor neuron in the spinal cord. When Eccles passed a current into the sensory neuron in the quadriceps, the motor neuron innervating the quadriceps produced a small excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP). When he passed the same current through the hamstring, the opposing muscle to the quadriceps, he saw an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) in the quadriceps motor neuron. Although a single EPSP was not enough to fire an action potential in the motor neuron, the sum of several EPSPs from multiple sensory neurons synapsing onto the motor neuron could cause the motor neuron to fire, thus contracting the quadriceps. On the other hand, IPSPs could subtract from this sum of EPSPs, preventing the motor neuron from firing. Apart from these seminal experiments, Eccles was key to a number of important developments in neuroscience. Until around 1949, Eccles believed that synaptic transmission was primarily electrical rather than chemical. Although he was wrong in this hypothesis, his arguments led himself and others to perform some of the experiments which proved chemical synaptic transmission. Bernard Katz and Eccles worked together on some of the experiments which elucidated the role of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter.

Eccles Mysticism

Eccles was, for much of his life, a practicing Roman Catholic although he did not always attend mass. However, he retained a deep sense of the reality of mystery, and of a spiritual realm, that for him left scope for theology in addition to science. Unlike many scientists, he did not think that science alone could fully understand the universe, or the mystery of life. He presented the prestigious Gifford Lecture on Natural Theology at Edinburgh University in 1977 on The Human Mystery (published 1979) and the The Human Psyche (published 1980). He argues that the prevailing scientific view that material processes in the cerebral cortex produces thought, so the brain is a biological computer, cannot account for 'the wonder and mystery of the human self with its spiritual values, with its creativity, and with its uniqueness for each of us' [2] Describing the prevailing theory as "reductionist", "impoverished and empty", he maintained that:

I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventually for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This belief must be classed as a superstition. . . . we have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world. [3]. Darwin, he said, failed "to account for our experienced uniqueness, I am constrained to attribute the uniqueness of the Self or Soul to a supernatural spiritual creation. To give the explanation in theological terms: each Soul is a new Divine creation which is implanted into the growing foetus at some time between conception and birth. [4].

He continued to believe in some type of contined existence after death:

I here express my efforts to understand with deep humility a self, myself, as an experiencing being. I offer it in the hope that we human selves may discover a transforming faith in the meaning and significance of this wonderful adventure that each of us is given on this salubrious Earth of ours, each with our wonderful brain, which is ours to control and use for our memory and enjoyment and creativity and with love for other human selves.[5]

Legacy

Eccles received many honors. These include a knighthood (1958), the Fellowship of the Royal Society (1941) and of the Australian Academy of Science (of which he was President, 1957-61) and honorary doctorates from a total of nine Universities, ranging from Cambridge (1960) to Yeshiva University, NY.

He is especially popular among those who value his reconciliation of science and faith. His work on the processes of the brain remains a significant contribution to science.

Selected Works

  • Eccles, John C. Eccles, 1979. The Human Mystery. Gifford lectures, 1977-1978. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 9780387090160
  • Eccles, John C. 1980. The Human Psyche. Gifford lectures, 1978-1979. New York: Springer International, ISBN 9780387099545
  • Eccles, John C. 1994. How the self controls its brain. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 9780387562902
  • Eccles, John C. 1985. Mind and Brain: The many-faceted problems. New York: Paragon House Publishers. ISBN 9780892260164
  • Popper, Karl Raimund, and John C. Eccles. 1977. The self and its brain. New York: Springer International. ISBN 9783540083078
  • Eccles, John C., and Daniel N. Robinson. 1984. The wonder of being human our brain and our mind. New York, N.Y.: Free Press. ISBN 9780029088609

Notes

  1. "Nobel Biography: John Carrew Eccles", 1972 Nobel Biography: John Carrew Eccles Retrieved October 19, 2007
  2. Eccles, John How the Self Controls Its Brain, Springer-Verlag, 1994 ISBN 9780387562902 pp. 33, 176.
  3. Eccles, John Evolution of the Brain, Creation of the Self, Routledge, 1989 9780415026000 p. 241
  4. Eccles, 1989 p 237
  5. Eccles, 1994 p 180-1.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Cousins, Norman Nobel Prize Conversations: With Sir John Eccles, Roger Sperry, Ilya Prigogine, Brian Josephson (Isthmus conversations), San Francisco: Saybrook Pub, 1985 ISBN 978-0933071025
  • Curtis DR, and P Andersen. 2001. "Sir John Carew Eccles, A.C.." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society (Great Britain). 47: 159-87.
  • Heilbron, J. L. 2003. The Oxford companion to the history of modern science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195112290
  • Pratt, David "John Eccles on Mind and Brain", November 1997. Original article published in Sunrise, June/July 1995 John Eccles on Mind and Brain Retrieved October 19, 2007.
  • Scott, John. 2006. "BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS - Sir John Carew Eccles." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. 150 (4): 673. ISSN 0003-049X
  • Stuart DG, and PA Pierce. 2006. "The academic lineage of Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-1997)." Progress in Neurobiology. 78 (3-5).

External links


Preceded by:
Alexander 'Jock' Sturrock
Australian of the Year
1963
Succeeded by:
Dawn Fraser

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