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WorldWeird: Design for artificial "electric eel" cells

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    So it's all a paper study so far but researchers claim they should be able to build artificial replicas of the "electrocytes" electric eels use to generate electricity.

    The cells could be implanted into humans and use glucose from the blood stream to power electric implants.

    Electric eels channel the output of thousands of specialized cells called electrocytes to generate electric potentials of up to 600 volts, according to biologists. The mechanism is similar to nerve cells. The arrival of a chemical signal triggers the opening of highly selective channels in a cell membrane causing sodium ions to flow in and potassium ions to flow out. The ion swap increases the voltage across the membrane, which causes even more channels to open. Past a certain point the process becomes self-perpetuating, resulting in an electric pulse traveling through the cell. The channels then close and alternate paths open to “pump” the ions back to their initial concentrations during a “resting” state.

    In all, according LaVan, there are at least seven different types of channels, each with several possible variables to tweak, such as their density in the membrane. Nerve cells, which move information rather than energy, can fire rapidly but with relatively little power. Electrocytes have a slower cycle, but deliver more power for longer periods. LaVan and partner Jian Xu developed a complex numerical model to represent the conversion of ion concentrations to electrical impulses and tested it against previously published data on electrocytes and nerve cells to verify its accuracy. Then they considered how to optimize the system to maximize power output by changing the overall mix of channel types.

    Their calculations show that substantial improvements are possible. One design for an artificial cell generates more than 40 percent more energy in a single pulse than a natural electrocyte. Another would produce peak power outputs over 28 percent higher. In principle, say the authors, stacked layers of artificial cells in a cube slightly over 4 mm on a side are capable of producing continuous power output of about 300 microwatts to drive small implant devices.
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    That's pretty much genuinely cool.
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      CommentAuthorzoem
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2008
     (3781.3)
    This is awesome. It really does cover the whole idea of how to power internal devices etc.

    But where are the artificial arse eels?

    (Sorry, someone had to say it)
  4.  (3781.4)
    It'll start with powering devices but down the track I'm thinking about things like the electrosense some animals have (like the platypus).

    You keep a small electric field running constantly through a grid of these cells and sense the disturbance caused by external electric fields (like say the electric fields produced by animals' nervous systems.

    Besides. if an electric eel can produce enough voltage to knock out fish, imagine what a human could do.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2008
     (3781.5)
    We should genetically engineer a race of financial examiners who can deliver shocks to bank managers whose firms fail to come up to snuff.
  6.  (3781.6)
    I volunteer for the prestigious and highly paid position of the bionic cattleprod test subject. I want to be Colonel Volgin (MGS 3 reference).
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2008
     (3781.7)
    @Kosmopolit

    Haven't there been some body mods where people have set up plates just under their skin that do something similar to what you're suggesting?
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      CommentAuthorJay Kay
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2008
     (3781.8)
    Besides. if an electric eel can produce enough voltage to knock out fish, imagine what a human could do.


    Human tasers? Awesome.

    Haven't there been some body mods where people have set up plates just under their skin that do something similar to what you're suggesting?


    Close--I've heard it was electromagnets implanted under the skin, but I believe it wouldn't do much other then allowing you to feel the electricity around you.
  9.  (3781.9)
    @Renthing - yes but as DKJ says they're pretty primitive so far.
    • CommentAuthorCassius
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2008
     (3781.10)
    So are we talking renewable energy here? Could enough of these electrocytes power a house, or a city for that matter?
  11.  (3781.11)
    Theoretically yes. In practise you'd be using thousands of times as much eenrgy to produce the food as you'd be getting back.
    • CommentAuthorCassius
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2008
     (3781.12)
    What does the article mean by 'small implant devices'?
  13.  (3781.13)
    Pacemakers; blood sugar monitors; electro0shock thingies implanted in the brains of people with epilepsy that stop seizures.
  14.  (3781.14)
    Coming soon from Trojan: Tingling Cock Implants for her pleasure!
  15.  (3781.15)
    I wonder how that compares against just shoving a copper wire and a zinc wire into the body.
    Electric eel cells vs. the human potato battery.
    There can be only one.
    • CommentAuthorCassius
    • CommentTimeOct 6th 2008
     (3781.16)
    $20 says the human potato battery reigns supreme.
    • CommentAuthorENGINE
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2008
     (3781.17)
    I remember reading something about how the bacterial digestion of glucose through the pass-down of electrons through the electron carriers embedded in the membranes of mitochondria can be harnessed to generate electricity, but it's terribly inefficient. They're thinking of using as bacterial current-generators; if the bacteria lives, you get electricity! If it dies, well, sucks.

    Anybody got linkage on that?
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeOct 23rd 2008
     (3781.18)
    On a related note, scientists have now figured out how to build reliable computer circuits out of neurons:

    http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn15019-computer-circuit-built-from-brain-cells.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news10_head_dn15019

    For all its sophistication and power, your brain is built from unreliable components – one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time.

    This lack of efficiency frustrates neuroengineers trying to build networks of brain cells to interface with electronics or repair damaged nervous systems.

    Our brains combine neurons into heavily connected groups to unite their 40% reliability into a much more reliable whole.

    Now human engineers working with neurons in the lab have achieved the same trick: building reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics.

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