Ray Peat on Gilbert Ling

The paradox of the lipid bilayer membrane doctrine

"The fact that cholesterol strengthens cells and prevents them from breaking down under stress obviously has nothing to do with a lipid bilayer membrane. This membrane doctrine has made it seem paradoxical that the loss of cholesterol should make cells stiffer while simultaneously weakening them. Gilbert Ling has pointed out the numerous paradoxes faced by proponents of the lipid boundary membrane for 65 years, but the membrane doctrine continues to dictate…"

September 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Evaluation of science in Ling's time

"I don't think you can think about Gilbert Ling's work (which began in the 1940s) without assessing how the science industry operated during that time – at least in the US and England. Science has its rules, but they don't apply when the prevailing ideology or paradigm is challenged."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Ling's concept of the living state challenges conventions.

"For many years, the scientific culture in the USA has at times condemned holism, intentionality, consciousness, epigenetics, self-organization, and self-regulation—along with vitalism—as unscientific and superstitious. In the 1960s, Gilbert Ling's idea of ​​a living state had echoes of holism and self-regulation, but one of the most offensive things about it was that it proposed explaining all biological processes using known physical laws and principles of physical chemistry."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Active transport and the role of ATP in cells

"The membrane theory states that the process of accumulating a substance against its concentration gradient is active transport and requires the use of ATP. Experiments by Ling and others showed that the energy metabolism of cells could be so disrupted that no ATP was produced, yet the cells could still maintain their ion gradient, even though sodium could freely diffuse across the membrane into the cell. All ATP has to do is be present and passively take its place in the cell."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Ling's view on the binding energy of ATP

"Since Ling did not assume that the binding energy of ATP is continuously consumed to operate membrane-bound sodium pumps, he was also not concerned with the energy that might be released during the hydrolysis of this bond. He was – like Albert Szent-Györgyi – aware that the ATP molecule adsorbs onto protein molecules with considerable energy and that its presence determines the shape of the protein molecule."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Ling's concept of the living state

"The picture of the living state of matter that Ling had outlined was now surrounded by a rich information landscape – about colloids, gels, coacervates, liquid crystals, nanoscale surface effects, self-organization and membraneless organelles."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The influence of CO₂ on muscle contraction and blood flow to the brain

"In the 1950s, Gilbert Ling observed that at elevated carbon dioxide levels, a given stimulus elicits a weaker muscle contraction than at lower carbon dioxide concentrations. Around the same time, Russian physiologists discovered that CO₂ produced by active brain cells relaxes blood vessels in the brain – including capillaries – and increases blood flow in proportion to rising metabolic demands."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Protein interactions and the influence of cardinal adsorbents

"Everything that binds to a protein—such as potassium or ammonium—has an inductive effect on the protein's structure and its interactions with its environment; and substances that strongly adsorb, especially ATP and steroids, strongly influence the system's properties. Molecules that bind strongly to proteins alter the way proteins affect the properties of water, and the properties of water control cell metabolism as well as their interactions with each other and with the environment. Ling called these influential binding molecules cardinal adsorbents."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Holistic interactions of metabolic energy and structure in health and cancer

"In the 1960s, at the height of the membrane hype, Otto Warburg, Albert Szent-Györgyi, and Gilbert Ling were ridiculed when they described the difference between health and cancer in terms of holistic interactions of metabolic energy and structure. Many of their fundamental discoveries are now individually recognized, but their significance is inaccessible within the framework of the mechanical membrane/pump/receptor doctrine."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cell organization and the influence of energy on protein solubility

“Many of the new observations related to viewing cells as self-organizing coacervative systems are reminiscent of Gilbert Ling’s observations. For example, ATP increases the solubility of proteins (Patel et al., 2017), and when energy becomes scarce, some proteins precipitate out of solution and form membraneless organelles, filaments, and granules.”

January 2021 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Limiting effect of carbon dioxide on overexcitation of nerves and muscles

"Carbon dioxide limits the electrical depolarization of nerves and muscles – a phenomenon first discovered by Gilbert Ling. This prevents overexcitation and exhaustion of brain and muscle cells, including the heart. The presence of carbon dioxide limits the formation of lactic acid. This explains the lactate paradox during physical exertion at high altitude."

December 1999 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Insights from decades of research on cell physiology

"In 1968 or 1969 I had read the previous 50 years of research on cell physiology, and I saw that Gilbert Ling had been almost alone for over 20 years in offering a view of the cell that was physically possible."

1998 – Ray Peat's Newsletter – 4

Criticism of today's scientific culture in cell research

“I have seen articles in major scientific journals that draw important conclusions from the non-existent positive charge supposedly present on the outside of cells – and this has slipped past editors and reviewers because these ideas are so prevalent in our scientific culture. Less conspicuous, but equally erroneous, notions are even more widespread. The use of various microelectrode techniques has provided a wealth of information about cellular electrical responses, but – with the exception of the work of Gilbert Ling and a few others – the significance of the data is obscured by a vast culture of fanciful theories.”

1998 – Ray Peat's Newsletter – 2

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