{ "model": { "rank": 9902, "code": "thing-q389844", "model_id": "vr.tr.membrane-potential", "name": "membrane potential", "purpose": "Let an agent explain membrane potential, relay physiology, equations and measurement from neuroscience and physiology sources, describe the named potentials, and distinguish membrane potential from action potentials as events, electrochemical gradients, zeta potential and electrode potentials in chemistry.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q389844/", "tier": 2, "score": 46, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Threshold potential", "mitochondrial membrane potential", "synaptic potential", "miniature postsynaptic potential" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 46, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q389844", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q389844", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T21:33:56Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q389844", "registryId": "vr.tr.membrane-potential", "name": "membrane potential", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q389844/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.membrane-potential", "name": "membrane potential", "purpose": "Let an agent explain membrane potential, relay physiology, equations and measurement from neuroscience and physiology sources, describe the named potentials, and distinguish membrane potential from action potentials as events, electrochemical gradients, zeta potential and electrode potentials in chemistry.", "definition": "The difference in electric potential between the inside and outside of a biological cell or organelle, arising from ion concentration gradients and selective permeability, including the resting membrane potential of neurons of about minus 70 millivolts, the threshold potential at which voltage-gated sodium channels trigger an action potential, synaptic potentials such as excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, miniature postsynaptic potentials from single vesicle release described by Fatt and Katz in 1952, and the mitochondrial membrane potential that drives ATP synthesis; it is described by the Nernst and Goldman equations and the Hodgkin-Huxley model.", "what_it_is_for": "Enabling signalling and energy conversion in cells.", "affordances": [ "explain physiology", "relay equations and measurement", "describe named potentials", "distinguish related concepts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Ion gradients", "Selective permeability", "Basis of excitability", "Measured electrically" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; recorded as voltage traces with microelectrodes.", "visual_identification": [ "Voltage across a cell or organelle membrane", "Threshold potential, mitochondrial membrane potential, synaptic potential, miniature postsynaptic potential, resting potential", "Action potentials are transient spikes; electrochemical gradients include concentration; zeta potential concerns colloids; electrode potentials are electrochemistry" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "neuronal resting potential", "typical_range": "about -70", "unit": "mV", "note": "typical" }, { "quantity": "threshold potential", "typical_range": "about -55", "unit": "mV", "note": "typical" }, { "quantity": "mitochondrial membrane potential", "typical_range": "about -150 to -180", "unit": "mV", "note": "approximate" }, { "quantity": "Hodgkin-Huxley model", "typical_range": "1952", "unit": "year", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "resting potential", "threshold potential", "graded synaptic potentials", "miniature postsynaptic potentials", "organelle membrane potentials" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "bioelectric potential difference", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is described by", "target": "Goldman equation", "why": "" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "resting potential", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "action potential", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation; research ethics apply to experiments" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing resting and action potentials", "Sign convention errors", "Oversimplifying ion channel roles" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What membrane potential is.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is membrane potential, and how does it differ from action potentials, electrochemical gradients, zeta potential and electrode potentials?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about neurons, muscles, mitochondria or measurement?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "named", "name": "Named", "description": "Named potentials.", "findings": [ { "id": "named-finding", "name": "Named", "description": "Named.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are threshold, mitochondrial, synaptic and miniature postsynaptic potentials?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific potential?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "physiology", "name": "Physiology", "description": "Mechanisms.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "ions", "name": "Ions", "description": "Ion gradients.", "findings": [ { "id": "ions-finding", "name": "Ions", "description": "Ions.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do sodium-potassium pumps and leak channels set the resting potential?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "equations", "name": "Equations", "description": "Nernst and Goldman.", "findings": [ { "id": "equations-finding", "name": "Equations", "description": "Equations.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do the Nernst and Goldman equations predict membrane potential?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "signalling", "name": "Signalling", "description": "Signalling.", "rationale": "Application.", "layers": [ { "id": "synapses", "name": "Synapses", "description": "Synaptic potentials.", "findings": [ { "id": "synapses-finding", "name": "Synapses", "description": "Synapses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do EPSPs, IPSPs and minis arise at synapses?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits postsynaptic potential?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mitochondria", "name": "Mitochondria", "description": "Mitochondrial potential.", "findings": [ { "id": "mitochondria-finding", "name": "Mitochondria", "description": "Mitochondria.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the mitochondrial membrane potential drive ATP synthesis?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits chemiosmosis?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Measurement and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "patch", "name": "Patch clamp", "description": "Measurement.", "findings": [ { "id": "patch-finding", "name": "Patch clamp", "description": "Patch clamp.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is membrane potential measured with patch clamp?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits patch clamp?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did Hodgkin and Huxley model the squid giant axon?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Hodgkin-Huxley model?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should threshold potential be a separate entry?", "How should physiology sources be linked?", "Should mitochondrial membrane potential be a separate entry?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a membrane potential, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain membrane potential, relay physiology, equations and measurement from neuroscience and physiology sources, describe the named potentials, and distinguish membrane potential from action potentials as events, electrochemical gradients, zeta potential and electrode potentials in chemistry.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Threshold potential, mitochondrial membrane potential, synaptic potential, miniature postsynaptic potential.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a membrane potential, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Threshold potential", "mitochondrial membrane potential", "synaptic potential", "miniature postsynaptic potential" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one membrane potential from another, and a membrane potential from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a membrane potential sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a membrane potential from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a membrane potential passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a membrane potential between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a membrane potential, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a membrane potential is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What membrane potential is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of membrane potential are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is membrane potential operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of membrane potential and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of membrane potential?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as membrane potential?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a membrane potential came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a membrane potential and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a membrane potential is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a membrane potential, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a membrane potential, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a membrane potential is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }