Archibald V. Hill
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Archibald Vivian Hill
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1922
Born: 26 September 1886, Bristol, United Kingdom
Died: 3 June 1977, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Affiliation at the time of the award: London University, London, United Kingdom
Prize motivation: “for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle”
Archibald V.
Prize share: 1/2
Work
In order to work, our muscles need energy, which is released by chemical processes. During the 1910s Archibald Hill outlined these processes by studying muscles from frogs. In opposition to the prevailing view that mechanical movement and chemical processes were parallel sequences, Hill was able to show through measurements of heat generated by the mechanical processes that these were delayed in relation to the movements. The chemical sequence consists of a work phase, which is not dependent on oxygen supply, and a recovery phase, when oxygen is required.
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