Biographical Memoirs Volume 48 (1976) / Chapter Skim
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Georg Von Békésy
Georg Von Békésy
Pages 24-49
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From page 25... ...
He found his life work outside of his original chosen field during the economic depression in Hungary following World War I, and he was set on his wanderings half way around the face of the earth by the political turmoil there after World War II. Professor Georg von Bekesy died on June 13, 1972, at the age of seventy-three, in Honolulu.
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From page 26... ...
For some time Bekesy had two laboratories; for, after his appointment at the University, he continued his research in the government laboratory at the Hungarian Post. During the foreign occupation of Hungary after World War II, Bekesy found conditions intolerable for scientific research and in 1946 accepted an invitation to go to the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm to work with Y
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From page 27... ...
The footplate of the stirrup which serves as the innermost link of the ossicle chain is movably mounted in the opening of the oval window of the inner ear which faces the middle ear. The vibrations of the fluid engage in their turn the so-called basilar membrane, an oblong partition which divides the spiral-shaped cavity of the cochlea in its longitudinal direction.
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From page 28... ...
By microdissection he reaches anatomical structures difficult of access, uses advanced teletechniques for stimulation and recording, and employs high magnification stroboscopic microscopy for making apparent complex membrane movements, the amplitudes of which are measured in thousandths of the millimeter. "Among van Bekesy's important contributions to our knowledge of sound transmission in the middle ear should be mentioned the elucidation of the vibration patterns of the eardrum and of-the interplay of the ossicle movements.
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From page 29... ...
The point of the needle simultaneously served as an electrode for recording the electrical potentials from the receptor cells. It was found that a local pressure on the basilar membrane is transformed into strong shearing forces which act on the hair cells in various degrees.
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From page 30... ...
This brief account of Bekesy's life and work represents the sum and substance of the public record, excepting one autobiographical sketch published posthumously in 1974. Bekesy generally left it to others to extol his virtues and proclaim his accomplishments.
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From page 31... ...
As a young man, Bekesy studied music seriously; and it has always seemed strange to many people that in his later years the world's greatest authority on hearing was more interested in the visual arts than in the musical arts. The explanation is simple.
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From page 32... ...
As was mentioned above, Bekesy's choice of a scientific career was, as he put it, "pure acciclent." But chance can only provide PA biographical sketch of Busy, which focuses on his interest in art, is included in the catalog: F Ratliff, "Georg von Bekesy: His Life, His Work, and his Friends," in The Georg Con Be'ke'sy Collection, ed.
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From page 33... ...
As a result Bekesy was drawn into the problems of the rapidly developing field of communication engineering—particularly the electromechanical means of the transfer and processing of information. At that time the international telephone lines were tested over a loop made by closing the circuit in another city.
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From page 34... ...
With the click method it was easy to determine that the telephone receiver was the worst part of all—including even the international cables themselves. But this focus on the receivers immediately raised the further question: Is the receiver more or less sensitive than the ear?
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From page 35... ...
This study of the mechanics of the eardrum led naturally to the study of the middle ear and the investigation of the chain of bones—stirrup, hammer, and anvil—that conducts the sound from the eardrum to the inner ear. And likewise, this study led naturally to the inner ear itself and dealt with a very old problem—the form of the pattern of vibration produced on the basilar membrane in response to a pure tone.
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From page 36... ...
Indeed, the search for truth and the love of beauty were never far apart in Bekesy's life and work. Commenting on his first view of the organ of Corti he wrote: "I found the inner ear so beautiful under a stereoscopic microscope that I decided I would just stay with that problem.
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From page 37... ...
National Academy of Sciences 1957 Gold Medal, American Otological Society 1959 M.D. (honoris causal, University of Berne 1961 Gold Medal, The Acoustical Society of America 1961 Achievement Award, Deafness Research Foundation 1961 1962 1963 1965 1968 1968 1969 1969 37 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine M.D.
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From page 38... ...
Z., 29:793-810. 1929 Zur Theorie des Horens; uber die Bestimmung des einem reinen Tonempfinden entsprechenden Erregungsgebietes der Basilarmembran vermittelst Ermudungsercheinungen.
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From page 39... ...
, 13: 111-36. Uber den Einfluss der durch den Kopf und den Gehorgang bewirkten Schallfeldverzerrungen auf die Horschwelle.
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From page 40... ...
Z., 2: 149. Ober die mechanische Frequenzanalyse einmaliger Schwingungsvorgange und die Bestimmung der Frequenzabhangigkeit von Ubertragungssystemen und Impedanzen mittels Ausgleichsvorgangen.
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From page 41... ...
Z., 7:173-86. 1943 Ober die Resonanzkurve und die Abklingzeit der verschiedenen Stellen der Schneckentrennwand.
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From page 42... ...
Am., 21:217-32. The vibration of the cochlear partition in anatomical preparations and in models of the inner ear.
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From page 43... ...
Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 71: 306-10. DC resting potentials inside the cochlear partition.
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From page 44... ...
Archiv fur Ohren-, Nasen- und Kehlkopfheilkunde, vereinigt mit Zeitschrift fur Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenheilkunde, Kongressbericht, 167: 238-55. 1956 Current status of theories of hearing.
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From page 45... ...
Laryngoscope, 71:367-76. Ober die Gleichartigkeit einiger nervosen Prozesse helm Horen und Vibrationssinn.
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From page 46... ...
Am., 34:850-56. Concerning the pleasures of observing, and the mechanics of the inner ear.
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From page 47... ...
lg67 Mach band type lateral inhibition in different sense organs.
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From page 48... ...
1969 Fin Modell der mechanischen und nervosen Vorgange des Innenohres. Nova Acta Leopoldina, Nummer 184, 33: 103-19.
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From page 49... ...
USA, 69:885-87. Wish bands measured by a compensation method.
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