TEACHING
MEMPOT was the first of a series of three simulated experiments that have been developed over recent years. MEMPOT was developed as an interactive teaching program that simulates the measurement of membrane potentials on excitable cells. It was designed to show students how resting membrane potentials and action potential peaks depend on [K] and [Na] concentrations and on their relative permeabilities. Further details can be obtained by e-mailing
p.barry@unsw.edu.au.By about 2000, the MEMPOT program has already been purchased by more than 70 universities world-wide in at least 22 different countries. A paper describing the program was published at the end of 1990 by the American Physiological Society's journal Advances in Physiology Education [Ref. Am. J. Physiol. (259, Adv. Physiol. Educ. 4), S15-S23, 1990] and it has also been described in a chapter in Methods in Neurosciences, 10, 473-491.
A new full Windows version of the program, MemPotW, was completed at the end of 1999 by E. Crawford in conjunction with Professor P H Barry at the University of New South Wales and has since had a few minor upgrades.
The cost of the program, with Instructor's Manual, Student's Notes and departmental site license is US$395 for the first program (e.g., this program) and US$200 each for either of the other two programs, MEMPOT and MEMCABLE. This program should also run with Apple Macintosh computers provided they have a fully compatible Windows/DOS emulation package.
A special upgrade price from the DOS to the full Windows version is also available.
For a demonstration copy of the Windows program, click on MemPot for Windows Demo Download.