Long before we built circuits, nature perfected bioelectric systems. Explore the organisms, ecosystems, and phenomena that prove electricity is the language of life.
A small implant on the vagus nerve is showing it can quiet the inflammation behind rheumatoid arthritis, raising the question of whether electricity can compete with biologic drugs.
Every cut in your skin generates its own electric field, and skin cells read it like a compass. Here's how injury currents direct wound closure, and where the therapy still falls short.
A new generation of flexible, multi-contact cuff electrodes is letting researchers dial in specific fibers of the vagus nerve, not the whole cable at once.
Rigid brain electrodes degrade as scar tissue builds around them. Syringe-injectable mesh electronics, pioneered at Harvard, may be the first real fix.
A pacemaker-sized implant on the vagus nerve kept rheumatoid arthritis symptoms down for a year, durability data that puts real pressure on biologic drugs.
The Ghost Knifefish Navigates in Complete Darkness Using a Self-Generated Electric Field
Apteronotus albifrons · Weakly Electric Fish · Amazon Basin
Emitting a continuous 1kHz electric field from its body, the black ghost knifefish builds a three-dimensional map of its environment — detecting objects, prey, and rivals by how they distort its personal electromagnetic bubble.
A small implant on the vagus nerve is showing it can quiet the inflammation behind rheumatoid arthritis, raising the question of whether electricity can compete with biologic drugs.
Every cut in your skin generates its own electric field, and skin cells read it like a compass. Here's how injury currents direct wound closure, and where the therapy still falls short.
A new generation of flexible, multi-contact cuff electrodes is letting researchers dial in specific fibers of the vagus nerve, not the whole cable at once.
Rigid brain electrodes degrade as scar tissue builds around them. Syringe-injectable mesh electronics, pioneered at Harvard, may be the first real fix.
A pacemaker-sized implant on the vagus nerve kept rheumatoid arthritis symptoms down for a year, durability data that puts real pressure on biologic drugs.
Every cut in your skin generates its own electric field, and skin cells read it like a compass. Here's how injury currents direct wound closure, and where the therapy still falls short.
🧬 Nature
bioelectricitycorollary discharge electrosensoryelectroreceptionelectroreceptorsghost knifefish electrolocationgymnotiformjamming avoidance responseweakly electric fish
The ghost knifefish builds a private electric field around its own body and reads the shadows objects cast in it, a sensory trick that forces its brain to cancel out its own signal in real time.
🧬 Nature
bacterial nanowiresbioelectricitycable bacteriaelectrogenic bacteriaelectron transport sedimentGeobacterGeobacter sulfurreducensocean floor sediment
Cable bacteria wire themselves into centimeter-long filaments that move electrons through mud like living circuits, and they are rewriting ocean floor chemistry.