Electric Eel "Remotely Controls" Prey

[TenEightyOne]

I couldn't find a thread for this, but it's a cool fact so here you go

I'm not sure "control" is quite the right word, but hey.

A study, reported in the journal Science, has now shown that eels can use their electric organs to remotely control the fish they hunt.

A researcher from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Texas, found that the electric discharges from eels made the muscles of their prey twitch.

This makes the fish easier to capture either by immobilising it or making it "jump" to show where it's hiding.

BBC - Electric eels 'remotely control their prey'

Science - The shocking predatory strike of the electric eel

 

[Dotini]

I couldn't find a thread for this, but it's a cool fact so here you go

I'm not sure "control" is quite the right word, but hey.



BBC - Electric eels 'remotely control their prey'

Science - The shocking predatory strike of the electric eel

Some more info on electric fish. There are many species. Some generate electric fields and pulses, and some can only sense them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_fish

It's interesting that every cell in the human body has electrical properties, operations and functions, some quite specialized. Since over 60% of our body weight is water, and over 90% of the molecules in our bodies are water, that means that the water in the body has different properties than ordinary bulk water.

In a sense, we are electric beings. Otherwise, we could not be alive.