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            This week during class, it was interesting to find out that all axons contained the same signal. Initially, I was somewhat surprised about this, but when thinking about the axons and signals, it made the most sense that there was only one type of signal. The pathways of the cables are what really differed, so the signals involved in moving one’s eyes and feet were identical. However, the pathways and cables containing the signal were completely different. Also, the concept of time and the nervous system was an interesting topic during class.   At first, the idea of the brief disturbance by the action potential taking milliseconds seemed quite fast to the class. However, when comparing it to the speed that an electrical signal travels at, which was the speed of light, the action potential seemed extremely slow. This brief disturbance that we were talking about happened to be a switch taking place between the positive and negative signs on the axon.  I had never known that an axon was so similar to a battery, until we discussed the diffusion and selectively permeable layer.  In fact, all it took was a selectively permeable membrane and a concentration gradient of the ions to create this battery. Hence, we were able to find out that because there was a lot more potassium inside the battery than outside, the inside of the axon happened to be negative. At first, this may have seemed confusing, but the example using the red and blue particles in a box with a semi-permeable layer and a force acting upon it helped clarify this confusion.   Therefore, when the battery in the axon went from inside negative to inside positive, a gradient was created in which there was more sodium outside the axon than inside.