Editing Archibald Hill (section)

== Biography ==
Born in [[Bristol]], he was educated at [[Blundell's School]] and graduated from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] as third [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|wrangler]] in the mathematics [[tripos]] before turning to [[physiology]]. While still an undergraduate at Trinity College, he derived in 1909<ref name="Hill1909">{{Cite journal | last1 = Hill | first1 = A. V. | title = The mode of action of nicotine and curari, determined by the form of the contraction curve and the method of temperature coefficients | journal = The Journal of Physiology | volume = 39 | issue = 5 | pages = 361–373 | year = 1909 | pmid = 16992989 | pmc = 1533665 | doi = 10.1113/jphysiol.1909.sp001344}}</ref> what came to be known as the Langmuir equation.<ref name="Langmuir1918">{{cite journal |last1=Langmuir |first1=Irving |date=June 1918 |title=The adsorption of gases on plane surface of glass, mica and platinum |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society |volume=40 |issue=9 |pages=1361–1402 |doi=10.1021/ja02242a004 |bibcode=1918JAChS..40.1361L |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429050}}</ref> 

This is closely related to [[Michaelis–Menten kinetics]]. In this paper, Hill's first publication, he derived both the equilibrium form of the Langmuir equation, and also the exponential approach to equilibrium. The paper, written under the supervision of [[John Newport Langley]], is a landmark in the history of [[Receptor (biochemistry)|receptor]] theory, because the context for the derivation was the binding of nicotine and curare to the "receptive substance" at the [[neuromuscular junction]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

While a student he had enrolled in the [[Officers Training Corps]]; he was a crack shot. In 1914, at the outbreak of the [[First World War]], Hill became the musketry officer of the [[Cambridgeshire Regiment]].

At the end of 1915, while home on leave he was asked by [[Horace Darwin]] from the [[Minister of Munitions|Ministry of Munitions]] to come for a day to advise them on how to train anti-aircraft gunners. On site, Hill immediately proposed a simple two mirror method to determine airplanes' heights. Transferred to Munitions, he realized that the mirrors could measure where smoke shells burst and if he fitted this data with the [[ballistics|equations]] describing a shell's flight they could provide accurate range tables for anti-aircraft guns.<ref name="Van_der_Kloot_2011">{{cite journal | last1=Van der Kloot | first1=William | date=December 2011 | title=Mirrors and smoke: A. V. Hill, his Brigands, and the science of anti-aircraft gunnery in World War I | journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society | volume=65 | issue=4 | pages=393–410 | url=http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/65/4/393 | url-access=subscription | issn=0035-9149 | doi=10.1098/rsnr.2010.0090 | pmid = 22332470}}{{Closed access}}</ref><ref name="Van_der_Kloot_2014">{{cite book |last1=Van der Kloot |first1=William |date=2014 |title=Great Scientists wage the Great War |publisher=Fonthill |location=Stroud |pages=191–214}}</ref>  To measure and compute he assembled the [[Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section]], a team of men too old for conscription, [[Ralph H. Fowler]] (a wounded officer), and lads too young for service including [[Douglas Hartree]], [[Arthur Milne]] and [[James Crowther]]. Someone dubbed his motley group "Hill's Brigands", which they proudly adopted. Later in the war they also worked on locating enemy planes from their sound. He sped between their working sites on his beloved motorcycle. At the end of the war, Major Hill issued certificates to more than one hundred Brigands. He was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] (OBE).<ref name="Van_der_Kloot_2011" />

In 1923, he succeeded [[Ernest Starling]] as professor of physiology at [[University College London]], a few years later becoming a Royal Society Research professor there, where he remained until retirement in 1951. In 1933, he became with [[William Beveridge]] and [[Lord Rutherford]] a founder member and vice-president of the [[Council for Assisting Refugee Academics|Academic Assistance Council]] (which in 1936 became the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning). By the start of the [[Second World War]], the organisation had saved 900 academics (18 of whom went on to win Nobel Prizes) from [[Nazi]] persecution. He prominently displayed in his laboratory a toy figure of Adolf Hitler with saluting arm upraised, which he explained was in gratitude for all the scientists Germany had expelled, some of whom were now working with him.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jean Medawar|author2=David Pyke|title=Hitler's gift: Scientists who fled Nazi Germany |date=2001 |publisher=Piatkus |location=London |page=122}}</ref> Hill believed that "Laughter is the best detergent for nonsense".<ref>Van der Kloot, William (2014). p. 202.</ref>

In 1935, he served with [[Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett|Patrick Blackett]] and Sir [[Henry Tizard]] on the committee that gave birth to [[radar]]. He was also biological secretary of the Royal Society; [[William Henry Bragg]] was president. Both had been frustrated by the delay in putting scientists to work in the previous war. The Royal Society collated a list of scientists and Hill represented the Society at the Ministry of Labour. When the war came Hill led a campaign to liberate refugee scientists who had been interned. He served as an [[independent (politician)|independent]] Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge University]] from 1940 to 1945. In 1940, he was posted to the British Embassy in Washington to promote war research in the still neutral United States. There he was authorised to swap secrets with U.S. officials and persuaded the British to show the Americans everything they were working on (except for the atomic bomb). The mobilization of Allied scientists was one of the major successes in the war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hastings |first1=Max |title=All Hell let loose: The World at War 1939-45 |date=2011 |publisher=Harper |location=London |page=81}}</ref>

He visited India between November 1943 and April 1944 to survey scientific and technological research. His suggestions influenced the establishment of the [[Indian Institutes of Technology]] (IITs) in the following decade.

After the war he rebuilt his laboratory at University College and vigorously carried on research.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=A. V. |title=Trails and Trials in Physiology|date=1965|publisher=Edward Arnold|location=London}}</ref> In 1951, his advocacy was rewarded by the establishment of a Biophysics Department under his leadership. 

In 1952, he became head of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] and Secretary General of the [[International Council of Scientific Unions]]. He was President of the [[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom|Marine Biological Association]] from 1955 to 1960. In 1967, he retired to Cambridge where he gradually lost the use of his legs. He died "held in the greatest affection by more than a hundred scientific descendants all over the world".<ref>Katz, Bernard (1978). p. 133.</ref>