There is an animal in nature, darwin himself dissected it; Faraday used it to power its experiments; Inspired by its body structure, Volta invented the first battery in human beings, thus driving the development of human electromagnetism.
What is it?
That's right! It's the electric eel!
This is not so much an animal as a creature of science
So what makes him so magical?
An electric eel was brought to Philadelphia from South America in 1773, and it was later observed that it had an extraordinary ability to convey a painful feeling to those who touched it! This feeling came to be known as an electric shock.
Electric eel is a freshwater fish from South America that can unconsciously produce electricity, although it is called an eel, it is not a type of eel, it is more taxonomically closer to catfish. Although it is not the only fish in the world that can discharge, it is the fish with the strongest discharge.
The most powerful electric eel, the discharge energy is as high as 860 volts!
An electric eel's average duration per electric shock is about two thousandths of a second. Although it is very short, a single electric shock may not kill a person, but it can stun a person. Electric shock will cause people to briefly contract/spasm muscles, and then people will feel numb, and if you are in water, the end result will be drowning.
Not only can the electric eel stun and kill the prey, it can also use electricity to remotely control its target, when the current passes through the body of the prey, the prey will avoid the harmful way of movement, and this is planting the eel's arms, and finally being eaten by the eel.
And recent studies have found that a powerful hunter like an eel is not a lone predator, but a group hunter like a wolf pack, and they will fight each other and cooperate with each other.
Electric eels live in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins of South America, in this dark/seasonal habitat, it is very dangerous for fish, in the dry season when the water level drops, oxygen will be insufficient, generally fish only have a dead end, but for electric eels this is not a thing, because they breathe air.
Electric eels have a mucous membrane in their mouths that can absorb oxygen, and when there is not enough oxygen in the water, they can also use their mouths to breathe air.
Electric eels look like snakes, they are very large, they can be 2.5 meters long, weigh up to 20 kilograms, they have no scales, the body is always slimy, 80% of the structure of the body, are for one purpose, that is, to generate electricity!
There are three kinds of organs for electric eels to generate electricity, called main organs/sachs organs and Hunter organs. These organs contain hundreds of thousands of muscle cells called electrical cells, which are flattened disc-packed cells stacked on each side of the fish's body into about 70 columns, each containing 5,000-10,000 such cells.
While they remain stationary, these cells keep negatively charged and pump out positively charged sodium and potassium ions while these cells are working. When an electric eel senses prey or is threatened, it sends signals through nerve endings, causing the ion channels on the electrical cells to open, and then the positive ions can flow back into the cells, which forms an electric potential and creates a voltage.
It has this power generation capacity like the batteries we use
And that's no coincidence!
It turns out that the first battery was invented in 1800, which was inspired by electric eels.
Italian physicist Alessandro Volte observed that electric eels have a bunch of cells that look like coins, and he wondered if he could imitate this arrangement, would he be able to generate electricity?! Later he tested with various metals,
Ultimately! He found that discs made of copper and zinc were soaked in salt water to get electricity! This gave birth to the first ever battery, the volt battery
Under the continuous research of scientists, it has been found that electric eels have made the use of electricity fascinating.
It can be used to perceive the environment, to communicate, and to navigate
Electricity Is cleverly controlled by electric eels, which can rely on electricity to navigate in dark environments.
In fact it is also impossible to use the eyes, because its vision is extremely poor. It is positioned with a weak current of about 10 volts, which emanates from around its body and can detect the distortion of the electric field from the conductor or antibody. This weak current is also only generated when the electric eel activates only a partial part of the cell.
Electric eels can communicate with low-voltage electrical pulses, and by changing the frequency of the pulses, they can convey information about their sex and reproductive receptivity.
When we think that electric eels only have these skills
That would be a big mistake
Electric eels also have a more cunning way of using electricity
That is to remotely control prey and force them to expose their position
Simply put, before hunting, electric eels will emit two high-voltage pulses with an interval of only two milliseconds to identify prey and expose the prey to its position.
These two pulses cause the prey's entire body to convulse violently, exposing its position. Live off a biological radar!
Although electric eels have a lot of ways to generate electricity we have understood, but scientists are still constantly researching, especially now we are inseparable from electricity everywhere, a large number of new energy vehicles with electricity have emerged, and everyone is working hard to improve the ability of the battery and improve the efficiency of the battery, maybe this method is on the electric eel?!
What do you think?