
Unexpected diversity in electric eels, strongest living bioelectricity generator - bookofjoe
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11690-z
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londons_explore
Biology is at a severe disadvantage when it comes to using electricity.

For an electric circuit, you need both conductors and insulators. The best
conductors are metals and superconductors. Metals are very hard for biological
processes to deposit, and superconductors require super cold temperatures
incompatible with biology.

Insulators are also very hard for biology, because most biological processes
involve water, and water is a pretty bad insulator since it dissolves ions so
readily.

Considering all that, it's amazing how much use of electricity biology
manages!

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pvaldes
Wow, the idea than electric eel should be treated as a complex of several
species is really interesting. A slightly different language should have
evolved among the species. A blind animal needs a measurable variation in
electric signals to know if other possible partners are friend of foe

