biology

Society of General Physiologists

Society of General Physiologists is a biology 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 Society of General Physiologists rather than just read about it. In short: The Society of General Physiologists (SGP) is a scientific organization whose purpose is to promote and disseminate knowledge in the field of general physiology, and otherwise to advance understanding and interest in the subject of general physiology. The Society’s main office is located at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, where the society was founded in 1946.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Society of General Physiologists (SGP) is a scientific organization whose purpose is to promote and disseminate knowledge in the field of general physiology, and otherwise to advance understanding and interest in the subject of general physiology. The Society’s main office is located at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, where the society was founded in 1946. Past Presidents of the Society include Richard W. Aldrich, Richard W. Tsien, Clay Armstrong, and Andrew Szent-Gyorgi. The society's archives is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

Membership The Society's international membership is made up of nearly 600 career physiologists who work in academia, government, and industry. Membership in the Society is open to any individual actively interested in the field of general physiology and who has made significant contributions to knowledge in that field. The Society has become known for promoting research in many subfields of cellular and molecular physiology, but especially in the fields of membrane transport and ion channels, cell membrane structure, regulation, and dynamics, and cellular contractility and molecular motors.

Activities The major activity of the Society is its annual symposium, which is held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Society of General Physiologists symposia cover the forefront of physiological research and are small enough to maximize discussion and interaction among both young and established investigators. Abstracts of the annual meeting are published in The Journal of General Physiology. The 2015 symposium (September 16–20) topic is "Macromolecular Local Signaling Complexes." Detailed information regarding the scientific agenda and registration is provided at the symposium website: https://web.archive.org/web/20150801070408/http://www.sgpweb.org/symposium2015.html Recent past symposium topics include: 2014 Sensory Transduction 2013 The Enigmatic Chloride Ion: Transport, Regulation, and Roles in Physiology 2012 Integrative Membrane Physiology in the Post-Genome Era 2011 Mitochondrial Physiology and Medicine 2010 New Optical Methods in Cell Physiology 2009 Muscle in Health and Disease 2008 Calcium Signaling and Disease 2007 Membrane Biophysics of Fusion, Fission, and Rafts in Health and Disease 2006 Chemotaxis, Invasion, and Phagocytosis: From Bacteria to Humans 2005 Na,K-ATPase & Related Cation Pumps: Structures, Mechanisms, & Diseases The Society also sponsors several award programs including the SGP Traveling Scholars Award Program to promote education and research in cell and molecular physiology.

References

See also American Society of Exercise Physiologists

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Society of General Physiologists

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Society of General Physiologists claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Society of General Physiologists 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 Society of General Physiologists 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 Society of General Physiologists

In research: Society of General Physiologists appears in biology 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 Society of General Physiologists 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: Society of General Physiologists is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Physiology organizations, Scientific organizations established in 1946, Scientific societies based in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Society of General Physiologists 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 Society of General Physiologists in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Society of General Physiologists 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 Society of General Physiologists out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Society of General Physiologists in simple terms?

Why does Society of General Physiologists matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Society of General Physiologists?

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 Society of General Physiologists.