This week we will examine the Hodgkin-Huxley model, the Nobel-prize winning set of ideas describing how membranes generate action potentials by sequentially allowing ions of sodium and potassium to flow. The learning objectives for this week are: (1) Describe the purpose of each of the 4 model levels 1. alpha/beta, 2. probabilities, 3. ionic currents and 4. trans-membrane voltage; (2) Estimate changes in each probability over a small interval $$\Delta t$$; (3) Compute the ionic current of potassium, sodium, and chloride from the state variables; (4) Estimate the change in trans-membrane potential over a short interval $$\Delta t$$; (5) State which ionic current is dominant during different phases of the action potential -- excitation, plateau, recovery.