Feynman’s Classification of Natural Phenomena and Physical Aspects of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Abstract

This review article is devoted to the formulation of the Richard Feynman’s classification of three stages in the study of natural phenomena and the application of this classification to the amazing discovery of the hexagonal grid cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain which was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. The problem of grid cells in brain is considered with accounting for (a) the experimental studies that led to the emergence of hexagons in the human and animal brains, (b) discussion of the problem of generation and propagation of an action potential along nerve fibers, (c) physical parameters of the human brain and its medical applications in the method of hyperthermia for the treatment of malignant tumors, (d) theoretical considerations using a certain analogy between grid cells in brain and the Abrikosov vortex lattice in type II superconductors, and (e) hexagonal graphene and dimensional crossover.

Physical Aspects of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: 2. The First Principle and Universality Class for Grid Cells in the Brain

“…In our previous articles [1,2], Feynman's classification was illustrated by a number of examples. The first of these examples is the phenomenon of light refraction at the boundary of two media, considered by Richard Feynman in his famous lecture course [45] describing the three stages of studying the light refraction phenomenon, namely: 1) the experimental stage associated with the experiments of Claudius Ptolemy on the refraction of light at the air-water boundary, 2) the theoretical stage associated with the establishment of the law of refraction by Willibrord Snellius, and 3) the final stage of the formulation of the first principle in the light refraction phenomenon, associated with the "Principle of the least time" of Pierre de Fermat.…”

“…The second example of the three stages of the cognition of natural phenomena, which was considered earlier in [1], concerned the laws of conservation of energy, momentum, and angular momentum. As is known, the formulation of the first principles for these laws at the third stage of the Feynman's classification is connected with the use of Emmy Noether's mathematical theorem on variational invariants [46], as well as with a direct proof of the connection between the conservation laws and the symmetry properties of space and time, established in the classic monograph by Lev Landau and Evgeniy Lifshits [47].…”

“…becomes equal or slightly greater than its critical value Ra cr [13][14][15]. In (1), 𝜌 is the fluid density; ℎ is a thickness of the fluid layer; Δ𝑇 = 𝑇 1 − 𝑇 2 is the temperature difference of the lower 𝑇 1 and upper 𝑇 2 surfaces of the fluid layer; 𝐶 𝑃 is the heat capacity at constant pressure; 𝑔 is the acceleration due to gravity; 𝛽 is the coefficient of thermal expansion; 𝜂 is the dynamic viscosity; 𝜆 is the coefficient of thermal conductivity which is related to the coefficient of temperature diffusivity 𝜒 by the relation 𝜒 = 𝜆/𝜌𝐶 𝑃 .…”

“…This article is a continuation of the review publications [1,2], which were devoted to the formulation of Richard Feynman's classification of three stages in the study of natural phenomena and the application of this classification to the hexagonal grid cells in the brain. Norwegian neurophysiologists Edward Moser and May-Britt Moser for the discovery of grid C i t a t i o n: Chalyi A.V., Chalyi K.A., Zaitseva E.V., Chaika E.N., Kryvenko I.P.…”

“…In our previous article [1], a number of examples of the application of "The Feynman's classification of the three stages of studying natural phenomena" were considered. As one of such examples, the following provisions related to the problem of the formation of grid cells in the brain were discussed: experimental studies of the emergence of hexagonal structures in the brain, generation and propagation of an action potential along the axon in the model by Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley (the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) [6], physical parameters of the human brain and its medical applications in hyperthermia, and Edward Moser's idea about a certain analogy between grid cells in the brain and Aleksei Abrikosov's vortex lattice in superconductors of the 2 nd kind (the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics) [7,8].…”