What has been left out of all these discussions is AC (alternating current) vs DC (direct current). AC, at 60Hz, Is much more dangerous than the same shock from DC.
I once attended a lecture by a hospital Bio-Med engineer where he stated that 60Hz is in the range of worst AC frequencies for causing cardiac fibrillation. (Mr. Tesla, if you hadn't picked 60Hz, my admiration would be 100%)
To combat Tesla, Edison famously electrocuted an elephant to dramatize the dangers of AC. (You can see it on the usual video site).
I remember a time when a physics teacher had a class of high school students hold hands while discharging a 100 THOUSAND volt van de Graaf generator through them to demonstrate conductance. (Teacher would probably be dismissed and arrested, today).
The shock from the eel is DC, and though it will hurt, it shouldn't cause injury to an otherwise healthy human.
BTW, DC can also be deadly. A lightning strike, which is DC, can cause cardiac arrest or fibrillation. Usually, victims of a lightning strike can be saved by IMMEDIATE CPR.
8
It's a fascinating article, and we have to marvel at the amazing "tricks" that animals (and plants!) have developed to survive and propagate.
However, the explanation of the phenomena is a little painful (no pun intended) to read.
First, the term "amperage" is obsolete; the correct term is "current". Secondly, if there is sufficient voltage (it is not much), but insufficient current, then the shock will be harmless. A static shock from a doorknob, for example, drops about 10,000 volts, but--thankfully--there is nearly zero current there. On the other hand, house electricity is "only" 120 volts, but will deliver 35 amps (a lot), given the chance, and it could very well kill you.
A few milliamps to the human heart will stop it, or at least make it behave badly. It's no wonder, then, that electric eels gang up on large prey. Otherwise, they'd get nowhere except being annoying.
I hope that the scientists studying these amazing creatures are measuring their output current as well as their voltage.
Best.
KRM, PhD
12
This article says that this eel's electrical current isn't enough to kill a human. Jeremy Wade, the "Monster Fish" fisherman who is also a biologist, found eels in Brazil that could (and did) kill cattle, horses, and humans. The local coroner had seen several cases where large eels had wrapped themselves around a swimmer's upper body and sent shocks sizzling through the heart. Wade also found eels in a remote lake in New Zealand that locals said could kill people. Understandably, locals did not swim in this lake! Someday I hope that scientists will actually listen to the novices with experience. It could be enlightening, even shocking.
14
Makes you wonder what other oddities lurk in the Amazon...
6
Cue Anthony Perkins saying ovular isn’t a word in Orson Wells’ film of Kafka’s The Trial.
Ovula is a plant structure and its female reproductive cells. Ovular can relate to the ovula or to an ovum or ovaries. Confusingly an oval is egg shaped. There is a sea snail called Ovula.
Ovular apparently has been used a noun for a seminar of feminists, which is a use that I applaud, but ovular is not a shape.
I think the word ought to be oval especially in a biology context.
Otherwise great article even if it did bring to mind one of the central metaphors of the Wells film.
The ten year old me wants one for a pet. I wonder if it would get along with a pet capybara?
3
Will they wear a waterproof smartwatch?
1
Always wondered how electric eels don’t shock themselves when they do discharge electricity.
11
Hmm makes you wonder. I think studies are conducted on these eels for energy research. They pack enough to actually create a current. I can definitely understand the reason. We do need a renewable energy source. These could do the trick but more research has to be done so that we do not decide to just take eels by over fishing and then they go extinct. That problem has already a issue for rhinos in making ivory.
2
Many, probably many thousands of people, have been electrically shocked by vehicles emission systems. The voltage of nearly any gas engine ignition system is far higher than the voltage from this E. voltai. Likewise, Tesla coils and other high frequency electrical transformers produce high voltages that are comparatively safe.
Higher voltages allow more easy "connection" to the prey or the shocked person, but the voltage amplitude by itself is not a complete measure of the danger to us.
4
This is just an amazing story. (Thank you for publishing something that wasn't about politics or another upset person.)
16
What the heck is the appeal
of the darn electric eel?
Scientists get tied in knots
with the creature's kilowatts.
Journalists get writer's cramps
from the slimy serpent's amps.
Me, I'd give it such a boot
if it got electro-cute.
19
"The amperage is too low to cause serious harm to humans." "An eel has about 6,000 electrocytes ... and can discharge them simultaneously to produce a powerful current."
"Powerful" is a vague adjective, but still: Can current (= amperage) be both "too low to cause serious harm" AND "powerful"? Not really, at least not in the same frame of reference.
7
@RR Small amperage can feel very powerful. A potentially deadly dose for a human being is just 30 mA, that's 0,03 Ampere.
1
@Roger Holmquist Yes, under the right circumstances that's true. But the article states that "the amperage is too low to cause serious harm to humans." And then states the eels produce "a powerful current." My objection is that non-scientists, which comprise most NY Times readers, could get the impression that "a powerful current" is "too low to cause serious harm to humans." And that's NOT a safe message!
3
@RR
Physicist here. The real measure of harm is in the power delivered, which is neither the voltage nor the amperage, but the product of the two: P = I * V. We've all experienced shocks in that range of 10,000V with nothing more than an "ouch!". This happens in dry conditions when you get a "static electricity" shock from, say, scuffing your feet on a carpet and then touching a grounded object. These shocks can easily reach 10kV or more, but they current *so little current* that they are nothing more than an annoyance.
The article never tells us what *power* the eel can deliver, which seems to me like a serious omission. I guess we have to estimate it for ourselves from the fact that the folks who've been shocked by the eels have survived.
10
Another source of renewable energy. Let's breed eels in giant farms.
4
@Peter why not have them in a trunk of an EW?
3
Absolutely. And we tie thousands of them to the blades of the wind turbines we already have!
2
I often berate The New York Times for other pieces it puts out, but here it provides an article that brings me back around to the wonder and fascination found in this planet's nature.
I'll really enjoy thinking (with wonder and fascination) about these electric eels today, and I have The New York Times to thank for doing the work that's necessary to give me these eels to think about.
14
I honestly think it's a interesting topic, to think there is something out there that is that powerful, it amazes me.
11
I want one for a pet
2