The Importance of Electricity We are flooded with electromagnetic waves; they are all around us in everything we use. It seems that electricity is the basis for the universe. I am not sure how many would agree with this, but it is my opinion. It does make me wonder if there is yet some undiscovered force which we might find which would be the dominant force on some other world? Why is electricity in so many living creatures? It does make one wonder, doesn’t it? Take some types of fish for example. How does an electric eel make electricity? There are about 350 species of fish that use electricity. It is not always used as a defensive measure as some would think. It can be used to communicate, navigate and stun prey. Half of the fish put out a weak current, about one volt and it comes from a structure in their tail that generates the current. This type of fish generates a field which allows them to detect different fish and creatures. The group of strongly electric fish contains only a few types of fish. The king of this group is the Electric Knife fish, which is the electric eel. It has electric organs down almost its entire body. When it wants to hunt, it uses its strongest shocks. It can emit up to 600 volts and incapacitate its prey with up to three shocks. Did you know there is an electric Catfish capable of discharging up to 350 volts? There is also an Electric Ray which can emit up to 220 volts. These fish were given a strange ability by nature. Some of us have wondered who discovered electricity. I guess we would have to say since it is a force of nature, the first being to see lightning might be the answer to that question. A better question is who realized electricity could be deadly or useful? Scientists were shocked when they discovered ancient batteries. No one is exactly sure how old the Bagdad battery is, but it is thought they were invented sometime between 150 B.C. and 650 A.D., but that is just a rough estimate. In order to create these batteries, there must have been an understanding not only how to create them, but for some use for them. We may never know exactly what they were used for, but there are a couple of guesses which have been made. The first is for plating with gold and the second is some sort of medical device. What many people don’t realize is the fact there are animals who generate electricity and use it. One is the Echidnas. They have electroreceptors in their noses which can detect the electrical impulses given off by their prey. Another animal also has these receptors in its snout. When a bee detects a flower sometimes it can sense a change in the electric charge generated by it which means another may have already gotten to the flower first. Did you ever wonder how geckos can climb up a smooth surface? The answer is electrostatic toe pads. These act as a force holding the animal to the surface. Some birds have ready made navigation. They use electromagnetism cues to figure out the path they want to travel on their migrations. This is basically a recent discovery. It was discovered by shielding caged birds from electromagnetic radiation. It switched off the birds desire to migrate and they calmed down. Some insects are capable of converting the chemicals in their bodies into electricity. This would allow scientists to power sensors, control the insect and even record what it is doing. Even the smallest of things is able to produce electricity such as certain bacterium. The bacterium give tiny charges into natural wires that stick through their cell walls. They can do this after disposing of waste. It has been said that every organism on earth produces some electricity no matter how little. The Oriental Hornet is quite fascinating, not only because of its looks, but because it is a natural solar battery. It can transform the sun’s energy into electricity. No other creature is known to be able to do this. What they do with this electricity is still unknown. Electricity must have been considered either magical or the power from the gods when it was first discovered. There is an ancient Egyptian temple which has a carving on its walls of something known as the Dendera Lightbulb. It is pictured in the Hathor temple in Egypt. The temple complex was first started, it is believed, in 1,995 B.C. This would indicate the idea of a lightbulb was around before that. Of course, not everyone believes what we are looking at is a lightbulb, but it certainly looks like one in a socket with a long wire leading from that socket. Could it be the ancient Egyptians knew a lot more about some things than we give them credit for? There are those who think the pyramids were power generating stations which used chemicals to generate electricity and if that is true, it wouldn’t be such a big leap to having developed some sort of light bulb and would explain why there is no soot on the walls from fires used to light the walls of the pyramids so paintings could be made. So many things are powered today by electricity they are enumerable. They range from all sorts of devices to make our lives easier to weapons. Some spacecraft are even powered by electricity and even though it is getting to be an old power source, it seems to have more uses every day. We have to wonder what the future holds for it. Will we have personal packs powered by electricity which will allow us to defy gravity? Maybe there will be medical treatments where electricity will be zapping cancer cells into oblivion. On the other hand, maybe we will find uses for it for things we are yet to find out about. Another thing to think about is as we evolve will the electrical force in our bodies change? Will it get stronger or weaker, or remain the same? In the future will the electrical force get so strong in us, we will gain some powers we don’t have now, or will we lose some of our powers such as a decrease in strength? Will we find out there is more to the electrical charge in our bodies than we suspect? I don’t know these answers and suspect no one does, but it could be electricity is more important to our bodies than we even suspect.
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