Why Don't Electric Eels Shock Themselves?
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- Check out @MinutoDaTerra and join our Patreon community at / minuteearth . (Links to other language channels down in the description)
Electric eels can emit some of the largest shocks in the animal kingdom - but why don't they shock themselves?
LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Electrocyte: a modified muscle or nerve cell that generates electricity in the electric organ of certain fishes
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CREDITS
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Leonardo Souza | Script Writer and Narrator
Kate Yoshida | Script Editor
David Goldenberg | Director
Lizah van der Aart | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music
MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
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Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida
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REFERENCES
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Raimundo Nonato Gomes Mendes Júnior (2023). Analista Ambiental, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade. Personal Communication
Babineau D, Longtin A, & Lewis JE (2006). Modeling the electric field of weakly electric fish. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3636-3651. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.02403
Bauer, R (1979). Electric organ discharge (EOD) and prey capture behaviour in the electric eel, Electrophorus electricus. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 4: 311-319.
Bennett, MVL(1971).Electric organs. In Fish Physiology, W.S. Hoar, and D.J. Randall,eds. (AcademicPress),pp.347-491. doi.org/10.1007/BF00303239
Catania K (2014). The shocking predatory strike of the electric eel. Science 346, 1231-1234 (2014). doi.org/10.1126/science.1260807
Catania, KC (2015). Electric Eels Concentrate Their Electric Field to Induce Involuntary Fatigue in Struggling Prey. Current Biology, 25(22), 2889-2898. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.09...
Catania, K.C. (2015). An optimized biological TASER: electric eels remotely induce or arrest movement in nearby prey. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 86: 38-47. doi.org/10.1159/000435945
de Santana, C et al. (2019). Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature Communications, 10(1), 4000-. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11...
Markham MR (2013). Electrocyte physiology: 50 years later. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(13), 2451-2458. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.082628 
Наука
So happy to see a video about Brazil here! Thanks so much for this, obrigado!
Eu fico em feliz por vocês traduzirem os videos em português, valeu mesmo
Leo, até em respeito aos nossos povos nativos, seria legal se você deixasse claro que poraquê não é puramente português, mas sim uma palavra emprestada do Tupi!
realmente, seria legal mostrar isso, já que diz muito sobro a cultura brasileira.@@matth3us
Congrats on a million subs! So proud of y'all!
Great job all!
Is there plan for a French channel? Is there a need for help there?
I'm a Brazilian and I had no idea there was a Portuguese version of the channel, that is amazing to know. also its funny how he explains it in English with the same cadence of a lot of Brazilian science communicators LOL
Me too I already knew but i watch the english version anyway cause it helps enrich my vocabulary i guess
haha make sure to subscribe to MinutoDaTerra! :D
electric eels were literally part of the inspiration of Alessandro Volta, so it's kind of like a battery is like the electrocytes, not the other way around, as the artificial batteries were created in an attempt to discover how the fish did it's thing
That is BS
@@PotionsMaster666 That was my first reaction, but I remember seeing an edutainment cartoon about invention of electricity and it had a scene where a scientist is shown an electric eel. While this could be some form or artistic license, I ended up searching and I found an article claiming that Volta was not only inspired by said animals, but the copper/zinc disc contraption was a direct result of trying to replicate the eel's electricity organ.
Search up "electric eels inspired the first battery" and you should find an article by "The Conversation."
@@PotionsMaster666 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel The electric eel was one of the things researched when electricity was being discovered, and the battery invented.
I love it when we take design cues from nature, but it’s more obvious when for example a train resembles a duck bill or a plane resembles a whale! Cool that the eel helped us invent batteries 😊
@@CoolJosh3k Thanks
I’ve always wondered how electric eels didn’t hurt themselves so it’s nice to know 👍
The only question I have now is what would happen if you tazed an eel, would it get charged or not feel it?
It would likely affect them less than other animals, given that they are fairly resistant (and their major organs are more protected than those of others). But a taser can routinely put our more than 1000volts, so if an eel was hit directly, I'd bet they'd feel it pretty strongly!
@@MinuteEarth Taser: *Bzzzzz crackle* Eel: Yeow!
@@MinuteEarth so I can’t throw a car battery at an eel to charge it up?
@@wren_.maybe you can throw an eel to charge your car battery up
Sounds like if you hit it in the front, where its vital organs are, that it would affect them more.
Que orgulho ver o sucesso dos amigos
Ss verdade mó bom saber que nosso país tem bastante representatividade
tamo junto Sam!
Meu aerodeslizador está cheio de enguias.
good job leo, you've been doing a good job maintaining our community and now, with a full episode at the one who you've started translating is just heartwarming. thank you!
Thanks so much!
As someone who met the Portuguese channel first and now always watches both the English and the Portuguese version this is so cool!
Hey, i'm from Brazil and usually watch the videos from Minuto da Terra! Came here to support my country and the channel, and need to say, Leo's accent really resembles the english russian accent. I find it really funny cuz my friends say my accent looks like the english french accent(?). With this said, awesome video and continue with the good content!
Thanks so much! :D
Its crazy that evolution caused this.
"So, what do you do for a living Mr Eel?"
"I work in the electrical field."
Portugal and Brazil, two countries divided by a common language. As someone from Portugal, I had never heard of the term "poraque", we just call them "enguia eléctrica" which is a direct translation of electric eel.
Porque "Poraque" não é propriamente português. Deve vir do tupi ou alguma língua nativa. Eu sou brasileiro, mas tb só conhecia como enguia elétrica.
Actually depending on the linguist European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese may actually lack enough mutual intelligibility to be considered a different language I mean depending on dialect even Brazilians can have a hard time understanding each other.
@@elael2 Yeah whenever you see "The one who..." it's probably an indigenous language that marks the noun who does the verb in the verb Tupi apparently marks both the agent and the patient in the verb so you can create a full sentence using just a verb.
@@elael2no Norte a enguia elétrica é chamada assim
@@MarcoAntonio-hw7si legal! A palavra deve ser originária de povos nativos do norte.
That's the first I had heard of the insulating layer of fat around many of the vital organs (and I had even tried looking up how eels protect theemselves from their own electric discharges(*)) -- very interesting. I wonder if in addition to that, eels' bodies are also debugged so that if something DOES go wrong from one of their own electric discharges, they recover very quickly and reliably: For instance, having their hearts' natural pacemakers thoroughly debugged so that they can never be sent into arrest or permanent arrhythmia by being shocked, and always restore a regular heartbeat immediately after a shock temporarily disrupts it, and likewise having their brains' wiring debugged so that it never goes into self-sustaining convulsions, and always resumes normal activity immediately after a shock temporarily disrupts it (probably required for this: have neurons reset themselves after being shocked -- would also help with not having lasting numbness after a shock, especially important if you need to start swimming quickly to get away from a predator). They might also be adapted for quickly repairing holes in cell membranes caused by electric shock.
(*)In the course of doing this, I did manage to find that if an eel creates an electric discharge when out of water, it will twitch as if electrically shocked, but this doesn't seem to do it any permanent harm, whereas we have a serious risk of heart stoppage and/or convulsions if an electric shock hits us in the right place and time.
3:01: I sincerely thought he was going to announce their engagement!
So thankful for subtitles here. An accent can sometimes make it quite hard to understand what is being said
The ending was pretty awesome.
right?! :))
What a cool thing! I'm Brazilian and I was watching the two versions at same time, now seeing this collab is very important! Let's Go! And congratulations Leo, your job is amazing bro!
Thanks buddy! :D
I LOVE THIS GUYS VOICE SM AAAAAAAA
I'm brazilian and I'm very proud to see a video made by Minuto da Terra team. I just became a member to celebrate it! great work!
I was amazed when my kids found the Portuguese version by themselves. Thank you Leo!
As a brazilian i feel honored for having one of the animals from our country as the theme of a video from one of my favorite science channels, I love minute earth ❤❤❤
yay! :D
Minuto da Terra It's incredible, thank you for representing us Leon, Long live Brazil!
I love this, Great explanation 🌩💡🌩
Muito obrigado Leo, você é incrível no que faz!❤🇧🇷
Obrigado você!
A minha voz favorita no Minute Earth!!! Foi mais surpreendente do que o Manual do Mundo dublando.
Que crossover!!
hahaha valeu Felipe!
Hi Leo! Great job! ❤
Thanks!
The amount of volts doesn't say much without amperage and time. Most people take high voltage shocks, like static electricity, but because it's only a few milliseconds, no harm is done.
Não sabia que ele falava inglês tão bem, muito bom o vídeo!
Valeu!
And I'm obsessed with Leo 🥰 amazing video, guys!
Language nerd here. You looking for a cantonese translator? I see you already have mandarin but I guarantee there's a whole other demographic waiting to receive minuteearth content!
Hey! If you are interested in translating and localizing our content, please fill out this form as a first step: www.minuteearth.com/translating - Thanks!
Very good video! Really, it's good to see minutodaterra being mentioned!
Né? :D
Hey Minute Earth! I just wanted to let you know that the Catalan flag at 3:16 is not the official but the independentist one.
I am myself not too bothered with it, but I'm sure many Spanish people will, and tbf, it is a flag only used by the Catalan independence movement, so it has political connotations.
Usually, the flag used for the Catalan language is just yellow and red stripes, without the white star on the blue triangle.
Just letting you know. Cheers.
Thank you Leo!!
Great vid! You explained that so well in 4 min.
Glad to read that, thanks!
Poppy is sooo cute! Thank you for your videos! She makes people smile and love her. Love your postcard!
That's a short, but comprehensive explanation - thank you.
Thank you Leonardo!
For the first time, I like another brazilian's accent when speaking English
E pensar que veria você narrando ate aqui!!! Parabéns pelo trabalho.
Pois é!
Love how friendly this voice is
Obrigado!
Thanks for always brings to us useful informations 👏🏻 ❤
Leo you have a wonderful voice, glad to came over to English MinuteEarth to talk for a bit! I'd certainly love to hear you again personally!
oh, thanks so much! I'd love that too :)
Its so amazing!!! Go Brazil!
Great work Leo!
Obrigado!
Parabéns Minuto da Terra!!❤
valeu!
I'm a linguistics nerd learning Portugues De Brazil, and it's funny how I can pick up on why the Leo's accent is the way it is, like pronouncing ls at the end of syllables as ws.
Haha that's cool! Make sure to follow MinutoDaTerra, I'm sure it will help with your studies!
Brazil 🇧🇷 eu acompanho tanto o minuto da terra em português quanto em inglês, e gosto das lives em português também ksksksksk, foi interessante e inesperado ver o nosso apresentador favorito por aq
legal né, fiquei bem feliz!
siiimmm
Wonderful video Leo!
Obrigado!
Thanks, Leo!
Great job Leo!
Awesome! Thanks Leo ❤❤
THANK YOU MINUTE EARHT FOR THE AMAZING VIDEO ABOUT LEO 🇧🇷❤️
As a Brazilian, I can confirm that this is definitely a video
hahaha
Are we gonna talk about how the background music is in (as best I can tell) 14/16, with subdivisions of 5+5+4 ? And it sounds groovy as heck? Shoutout to Nathaniel Schroeder who is credited for the music. (Music is easiest to hear at the end @3:48)
Thanks Leo that was lovely
thank you!
Seems like a real superpower.
great video
Excellent!
thanks!
This is some shocking news
electric attacks are honestly so op because with minimal effort (you just need atp molecules to shuttle Na+/k+ ions out of the cell wall to reset, think of your muscles becoming sore after lifting something and you just need to rest a while to pick up weights again) with massive rewards....im honestly surprised that it isn't widespread especially in water animals
You missed the part where 80% of an eel is batteries. That doesn't leave much room for anything else.
You mean 20 % of this battery is eel
good to known even Brazilian Minute Earth makes puns
🎉🎉🎉 congrats Minuto da Terra
That's interesting but how come the current goes through another animal in the water, wouldn't the circuit close near the eel instead because the water has less resistance than the animals around?
Also, muito bom ver brasileiros representando aqui no canal 🇧🇷
I had the same question!
I assume the target animals do have to be quite close. It helps eels are pretty long, as the longer they are the further the current can reach.
Vai Brasil!
As I understand it, it can be thought of as concentric rings (in 2D). Further away there will be less voltage thus less current, but the voltage is so high that the much weaker effect far away will still be enough.
Edit: to be more specific, the less voltage would be due to the rings/paths in the water each becoming longer and having a higher resistance.
Since those eels live in fresh water, animals have a lower resistance than the water around them, so they attract the current into themselves
Omg 1 millions?! Congrats Leo!
Obrigado!
i wasn’t expecting vc aqui😂 muito legal ❤
Thanks
Can you provide links to all channels in all languages?
Sure! You can find them in the video description :D
@@MinutoDaTerra Thank you :)
Sempre que possível eu assisto os dois canais. É surpreendente o quão rico e acessível o conhecimento geral pode ser. Parabéns pelo imenso esforço, galera. Continuem sempre progredindo.
Why the catalan flag has to be the independence one? We have a constitutional one😪
The amount of puns in this video is shocking, indeed.
I HAD NO IDEA THAT MY NATIVE LANGUAGE HAS A SIMILAR CHANEL OMG
Leo is my favourite ❤
"The one who puts them to sleep" is badass as hell for a name
hahaha true!
Pelo brazil aqui incredible work! 👏👏👏👏parabens!
Parabéns pela presença irmão ❤
Tamo junto!
Hey! That was a nice surprise, valeu Leo
valeu!
Did you guys know that Tesla power it's cars with Brazilian eels? Great video!
Don’t let IBAMA know about it 😉
hahaha
Awesome!
insulated with fat? i'm electricity proof!
Insanely cool!
Congrats! I can show my school students minuteearth vids because of you! (They only speak portuguese)
That's awesome! Tell them I say hi :)
I have Portuguese heratige and i am now learning the language so mabye when i am more skilled I can go over to the channel and see if I can translate it.
Hey, make sure to pay a visit to MinutoDaTerra so you can practice your Portuguese! :D
Thanks!
Thanks!
Love when 20% of the video isn't taken up by an advertisement
Very interessant my friend!
Thanks ThingsIEat! :D
Thanks leo❤
Today I learned there are several different MinuteEarth channels for different languages. That's cool
E eu acabo de ver que tem um canal original em inglês, sou do Brasil
@@pzin296 Isn't it lovely learning new things? :D
"Here in Brazil we all know how dangerous these creatures are" I'm Brazilian and I didn't even know we had electric eels around. Wonder how I've survived that long. Thanks for the video 😂
Eu estava lá... Eu estava na live de 1 milhão e foi épico !
But why does the current not teavel through the eal, while it does travel through other fish with full force?
It literally says in the video that their bodies have an abnormally high resistance
As they said the eels body is a poor conductor while the murky waters of the Amazon River they call home make an excellent conductor ⚡️
This is not an answer. Why is their body less conductive than the bodies of the other fish who apparently be electicuted while swimming in the same heigh conductive water
@@ShyGuyChampionbut doesn't that mean the electricity should flow through the water rather than other fishes?
The eels specifically have a less cunductive body, so it passes through other fishes instead of through itself.
Thanks Leo, that was really cool! I just hope I never cross paths with an angry electric eel 😅
hahaha me too! Thanks so much Elo :D
Watt a shocking piece of information
If I am wading in water where there are electric eels, can I run an uninsulated wire that goes (say) from one foot to the other ? Wouldn't the current go through the cable instead of going through your body?
I'm so happy to see that finally somebody drew a normal heartbeat, and not ventricular fibrillation aka "almost dead" on the internet.
Que orgulho dos brazuca kkkkk sempre esperei por esse momento.
Tô todo bobo!
@@MinutoDaTerra vendo esse vídeo eu acabei descobrindo mais da sua história do que eu já sabia, eu não fazia ideia de que vc era tipo um pioneiro em localização dos vídeos de MinuteEarth e que teve tanto responsabilidade por ajudar a fazer essa localização para outras línguas. Isso só me dá mais orgulho e me faz admirar mais a sua pessoa. Vai Brasiiiiiiiiil! 🇧🇷
Hey can you plz share where to research... This type Of amazing stuff🤗
Eel-ectrifying!
They're Pikachus of water
English:
Very cool!!! Very good!!!
I follow Léo at Minuto da Terra in Brazil and I came because he announced this video!!!
It was awesome to see him do work here with you!!! In the original!!!
Very good!!! I really liked it!!
A big hug and it was a pleasure to meet you through Léo!!!
Until later!!! ✌🏻😄☺️😉👍🏻❤️
Português brasileiro:
Muito legal!!! Muito bom!!!
Eu acompanho o Léo no Minuto da Terra no Brasil e vim porque ele anunciou este vídeo!!!
Foi demais ver ele fazer um trabalho aqui com vocês!!! No original!!!
Muito bom!!! Gostei demais!!!
Um forte abraço e foi um prazer conhecer vocês através do Léo!!!
Até mais!!! ✌🏻😄☺️😉👍🏻❤️
Aeeee! Valeu meu querido, obrigado! Um abraço
I'm curious, if an eel can control the intensity of its shock?
As a pole I want to say how "minuta z ziemią" sounds cursed