Spark from the Deep
How Shocking Experiments with Strongly Electric Fish Powered Scientific Discovery
Published on 27. October 2013
304 pages
978-1-4214-0994-8 (ISBN)
Description
How encounters with strongly electric fish informed our grasp of electricity.
Spark from the Deep tells the story of how human beings came to understand and use electricity by studying the evolved mechanisms of strongly electric fish. These animals have the ability to shock potential prey or would-be predators with high-powered electrical discharges.
William J. Turkel asks completely fresh questions about the evolutionary, environmental, and historical aspects of people's interest in electric fish. Stimulated by painful encounters with electric catfish, torpedos, and electric eels, people learned to harness the power of electric shock for medical therapies and eventually developed technologies to store, transmit, and control electricity. Now we look to these fish as an inspiration for engineering new sensors, computer interfaces, autonomous undersea robots, and energy-efficient batteries.
Spark from the Deep tells the story of how human beings came to understand and use electricity by studying the evolved mechanisms of strongly electric fish. These animals have the ability to shock potential prey or would-be predators with high-powered electrical discharges.
William J. Turkel asks completely fresh questions about the evolutionary, environmental, and historical aspects of people's interest in electric fish. Stimulated by painful encounters with electric catfish, torpedos, and electric eels, people learned to harness the power of electric shock for medical therapies and eventually developed technologies to store, transmit, and control electricity. Now we look to these fish as an inspiration for engineering new sensors, computer interfaces, autonomous undersea robots, and energy-efficient batteries.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
File size
3,76 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4214-0994-8 (9781421409948)
DOI
10.1353/book.23996
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
William J. Turkel
Spark from the Deep
How Shocking Experiments with Strongly Electric Fish Powered Scientific Discovery
Book
10/2013
Johns Hopkins University Press
€41.50
Article not available at the moment
Person
William J. Turkel is an associate professor of history at the University of Western Ontario and is author of The Archive of Place: Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Strongly Electric Fish
2. Modeling Animal Electricity
3. Electrophysiology
4. The Spark of Life
5. Evolutionary Theories
6. Electric Currents
7. Discovering Electric Worlds
Conclusion: Nothing but a Movement of Electrons
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1. Strongly Electric Fish
2. Modeling Animal Electricity
3. Electrophysiology
4. The Spark of Life
5. Evolutionary Theories
6. Electric Currents
7. Discovering Electric Worlds
Conclusion: Nothing but a Movement of Electrons
Notes
Bibliography
Index
