The lipids of biological membranes and intact biomembranes display chain melting transitions close to temperatures of physiological interest. During this transition the heat capacity, volume and area compressibilities, and relaxation times all reach maxima. Compressibilities are thus nonlinear functions of temperature and pressure in the vicinity of the melting transition, and we show that this feature leads to the possibility of soliton propagation in such membranes. In particular, if the membrane state is above the melting transition solitons will involve changes in lipid state. We discuss solitons in the context of several striking properties of nerve membranes under the influence of the action potential, including mechanical dislocations and temperature changes.sound ͉ action potential ͉ compressibility ͉ Hodgkin-Huxley theory T he lipid membrane is the major building block of biological membranes, which consist mainly of large numbers of different lipids and proteins with a composition specific to the particular membrane under consideration. The isolated lipids of biomembranes display order-disorder transitions in the temperature regime of about Ϫ20°C to ϩ60°C in which membranes absorb heat (25-40 kJ͞mol), and both the lateral order and chain order of the lipid molecules are lost. This transition is accompanied by an increase in volume of Ϸ4% and an increase in area of Ϸ25%. The low and high temperature phases are called solid-ordered and liquid-disordered, respectively, indicating the simultaneous change in lateral crystalline arrangement and chain order. They are also known as gel and fluid phase, respectively. Mixed systems display a wealth of different phase diagrams. The melting profiles of lipid mixtures are therefore generally more complex than those of single lipids and cover a wider temperature range. Both peripheral and integral proteins change lipid melting caused by molecular interactions that influence the cooperative nature of the membrane fluctuations as a whole (1). Fluctuations in volume and area, and the related fluctuations in curvature, give rise to pronounced changes in elastic constants, e.g. compressibilities, bending elasticity, and relaxation times, all of which have maxima in the region of the chain melting transition. It has been suggested on theoretical and experimental grounds that these response functions are all simple functions of the heat capacity (2-4). The sound velocities of lipid dispersions obtained with ultrasonic measurements and the bending elasticities of giant vesicles are practically identical to the profiles calculated from the heat capacity (5-8). Within certain limits, it is thus possible to calculate the response functions from the heat capacity without detailed knowledge of the composition of the lipid mixture. In the transition region, membranes thus become more compressible and easier to bend. Relaxation times grow and are found to be in the range of 10 Ϫ3 s Ϫ1 ⅐min (4, 9). In unilamellar vesicles of single lipids, these changes can be pronounced. In compar...