Feynman’s Classification of Natural Phenomena and Physical Aspects of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Abstract

This review article is devoted to the formulation of the Richard Feynman’s classification of three stages in the study of natural phenomena and the application of this classification to the amazing discovery of the hexagonal grid cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain which was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. The problem of grid cells in brain is considered with accounting for (a) the experimental studies that led to the emergence of hexagons in the human and animal brains, (b) discussion of the problem of generation and propagation of an action potential along nerve fibers, (c) physical parameters of the human brain and its medical applications in the method of hyperthermia for the treatment of malignant tumors, (d) theoretical considerations using a certain analogy between grid cells in brain and the Abrikosov vortex lattice in type II superconductors, and (e) hexagonal graphene and dimensional crossover.