NEWS CENTER

新闻中心

首页

Chinese Scholar Sun Zuodong’s Potassium Channel Hypothesis Included by Popular Science China, Challenging Multiple Nobel Prize-Established Conclusions

发布时间：

2026-06-22

Tencent News Report: Sun Zuodong’s Origami Windmill Model of Potassium Channels Is Included by Popular Science China

The Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz (GHK) voltage equation, Hodgkin–Huxley (HH) equations, the Na⁺-K⁺‑ATPase (commonly known as the sodium-potassium pump) discovered by Jens Skou, and Roderick MacKinnon’s paddle model of potassium channels all underpin research that won Nobel Prizes: Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley were awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their voltage clamp experiments; Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann received the 1991 Nobel Prize for developing the patch-clamp technique; Jens Skou won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering Na⁺‑K⁺‑ATPase; Roderick MacKinnon claimed the 2003 Nobel Prize for resolving the crystal structure of ion channels.

For decades, these Nobel Prize-validated academic findings have been incorporated into textbooks worldwide. The GHK equation and the classical ionic theory have served as the dominant interpretive framework in neurophysiology, guiding research directions in this field across the globe.

Hodgkin and Huxley’s voltage clamp only measured aggregate ionic currents from isolated squid giant axons; single-channel activity could only be recorded after the advent of patch-clamp technology, marking two generations of experimental tools. All experimental datasets were collected from ex vivo specimens, which deviate from the genuine physiological environment of intact living native cells.

Popular Science China, under the jurisdiction of the China Association for Science and Technology, has completed official verification of the Ionic Theory entry on Baidu Baike. The entry fully retains the established classical theories mentioned above while integrating the origami windmill model of potassium channels proposed by Researcher Sun Zuodong, opening supplementary discussions on the prevailing mainstream interpretive system.

Though Skou identified the ATPase protein, a longstanding debate persists over whether this protein functions as the continuously energy-consuming sodium-potassium pump that transports ions. MacKinnon’s paddle selectivity filter model has long struggled to clearly elucidate the kinetic processes governing the precise gating of ion channels, a lingering unresolved issue within the field. The tetrameric origami windmill model of potassium channels posits that channel protein subunits rotate unidirectionally, dynamically adjusting the central pore diameter via rotation speed to open and close the channel.

This hypothesis can account for the gating mechanism of potassium channels, fully reproduce the entire time course of action potentials in neurons and cardiomyocytes, and further deduce that neurons can generate electromagnetic waves. It remedies multiple logical gaps in prior theories and offers novel perspectives for re-evaluating long-held understandings of potassium efflux during the repolarization phase of action potentials, the GHK–HH equations, and the energy-consuming ion transport hypothesis of the sodium-potassium pump.

Adhering to a neutral inclusion principle, Popular Science China preserves mature theories validated by Nobel Prize research while accepting this original hypothesis, presenting the two distinct academic explanations side by side. This authoritative popular science platform objectively showcases academic disagreements, breaking the entrenched model of presenting a single definitive theory.

Classical theories endorsed by the existing Nobel Prize framework still lack real-time in situ observational evidence from intact living somatic cells, and public academic forums addressing the associated controversies have yet to be held. The Nobel Prize recognizes phased research achievements and does not signify a definitive, ultimate explanation for its respective field.

The validity of both viewpoints is left for continuous verification and discussion by scientists and researchers worldwide, with expectations of open academic exchanges between different schools of thought. (By Xian Li)

References

Hodgkin A L, Huxley A F. A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve[J]. The Journal of Physiology, 1952, 117(4): 500-544.

Goldman D E. Potential, impedance, and rectification in membranes[J]. The Journal of General Physiology, 1943, 27(1): 37-60.