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Ether Dome 2D: How General Anesthesia Silences a Neuron

Interactive 2D model of the 1846 Ether Dome breakthrough: watch anesthetic molecules potentiate GABA-A chloride channels on a spiking Izhikevich neuron, shunting its membrane, on a live oscilloscope trace and dose-response curve, until action potentials stop propagating down the axon.

Pain Management & Anesthesiology2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

On October 16, 1846, William Morton demonstrated ether anesthesia to a surgical audience at Massachusetts General Hospital's amphitheater — the "Ether Dome" — turning surgery from an ordeal endured while conscious into a procedure performed on a silenced nervous system. This 2D dashboard renders the cellular mechanism underneath that discovery across three linked panels: a pannable/zoomable soma-and-axon view, a live oscilloscope of the membrane potential, and a real-time Hill-equation dose-response curve for the GABA-A receptor. Raise the ether concentration past the patient's EC50 and watch the chloride shunt clamp the membrane potential, the firing rate collapse, and the traveling action potential on the axon disappear — the same threshold behavior anesthesiologists target with minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) dosing today.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D dashboard of the 1846 Ether Dome breakthrough: a pannable/zoomable soma-and-axon view, a live oscilloscope trace and a real-time Hill-equation dose-response curve. Raise the ether concentration past a patient's EC50 and watch GABA-A chloride channels shunt the membrane until action potentials stop propagating down the axon.

anesthesianeuroscienceGABAmedical historyion channelsIzhikevich model

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install