Ionic channels are elementary excitable elements in the cell membranes of heart and other tissues. They produce and transduce electrical signals. After decades of trouble with quantitative interpretation of voltage-clamp data from multicellular heart tissue, due to its morphological complexness and methodological limitations, cardiac electrophysiologists have developed new techniques for better control of membrane potential and of the ionic and metabolic environment on both sides of the plasma membrane, by the use of single heart cells. Direct recordings of the behavior of single ionic channels have become possible by using the patch-clamp technique, which was developed simultaneously. Biochemists have made excellent progress in purifying and characterizing ionic channel proteins, and there has been initial success in reconstituting some partially purified channels into lipid bilayers, where their function can be studied.