Interpreter of Motion
A physiologist who followed movement into the chemistry of muscle. Oxygen, carbohydrate and lactate became clues to how a living body turns fuel into work.
Interpreter of Motion
Meyerhof made the working muscle a way into metabolism. His experiments connected oxygen consumption with the breakdown and recovery of carbohydrate in muscle.
He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize with A. V. Hill. Hill approached muscular work through heat; Meyerhof pursued its chemical transformations.
In his Nobel lecture, delivered in 1923, Meyerhof assembled experiments on lactate, oxygen and muscular activity into an account of energy conversion. Read it as a working scientific argument, including the questions later research would revise.
The Physiology Institute brought together researchers who would help establish modern biochemistry. Fritz Lipmann was among the scientists who worked with Meyerhof. The story of cellular energy emerges here as a shared experimental undertaking.
1923-12-12
Meyerhof's Nobel Lecture on oxygen consumption, lactic acid metabolism, and energy conversion in muscle.Read1923-12-10
Meyerhof's German-language Nobel Banquet address, including his appeal for science beyond national prejudice.Read1922
Official Nobel award record and concise account of his muscle-metabolism work; the prize was received in 1923.Read1913–1938 (period covered)
Nobel archival feature documenting Meyerhof's research program, the lactic acid cycle, ATP work, institute, and laboratory group.Read
Otto WarburgOxygen, measurement and the breathing cell
Fritz LipmannFrom muscle chemistry to carriers of energy
