astronomy

Lorin J. Mullins

Lorin J. Mullins is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lorin J. Mullins rather than just read about it. In short: Lorin John Mullins (September 23, 1917–April 14, 1993) was an American biophysicist who researched the movement of ions across the cell membrane. He served as the editor of the Annual Review of Biophysics and Bioengineering for ten years.

Key takeaways

Lorin J. Mullins belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lorin J. Mullins to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lorin J. Mullins from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lorin John Mullins (September 23, 1917–April 14, 1993) was an American biophysicist who researched the movement of ions across the cell membrane. He served as the editor of the Annual Review of Biophysics and Bioengineering for ten years.

Early life and education Lorin John Mullins was born on September 23, 1917, in San Francisco, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley for a bachelor's degree in 1937 and a PhD in physical chemistry. His PhD advisor was zoologist Sumner Cushing Brooks; he researched how the unicellular algae Nitella transported ions.

Career From 1940 to 1943, he was employed under Wallace O. Fenn at the University of Rochester; they researched the permeability of red blood cells to potassium and sodium ions. He was then part of the United States Army during World War II, spending time in the US training pilots in the operation of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, though also flying some combat missions in Europe. He also researched the effect of high altitudes on pilots. Following the war, he had a series of brief jobs and research fellowships in Europe, Johns Hopkins University, with George de Hevesy at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples. He joined the faculty of Purdue University in 1950. A majority of his research focused on the movement of ions across the cell membrane. In 1959 he joined the University of Maryland as chair of its biophysics department. He joined the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences in 1951 and the Marine Biological Laboratory in 1956, where he worked until 1977. He was on the board of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, from 1969 to 1973. From 1973–1983 he was the editor of the Annual Review of Biophysics and Bioengineering. He retired from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1988, at which point he became a professor emeritus.

Personal life and death He was married to Rowena née Stetson; the couple had two children together. He died on April 14, 1993, from cancer at the age of 76 in Chestertown, Maryland.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lorin J. Mullins

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lorin J. Mullins claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lorin J. Mullins before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lorin J. Mullins ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lorin J. Mullins

In research: Lorin J. Mullins appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lorin J. Mullins in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lorin J. Mullins is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1917 births, 1993 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lorin J. Mullins outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lorin J. Mullins in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lorin J. Mullins means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lorin J. Mullins out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lorin J. Mullins in simple terms?

Why does Lorin J. Mullins matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lorin J. Mullins?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lorin J. Mullins.