Thank this ugly animal: Without it, we wouldn't have phones to 'surf' like today

Batteries are considered a great invention, used in countless technological devices today, including smartphones. But few people know that, if not for the inspiration from this terrifying-looking animal, there would be no smartphone with enough battery to last us all day.

Volta battery

As the world's demand for portable power skyrockets, many inventors have sought to replace current battery technology with something better.

Italian physicist Alessandro Volta exploited basic electrochemical principles when he invented the first battery in 1800. Simply put, the physical combination of two different materials, usually metal, will create a chemical reaction that results in a flow of electrons from one material to the other. That flow of electrons represents mobile energy that can be harnessed to generate electricity.

The first materials used to produce batteries were copper and zinc. Today's best batteries - which produce the highest electrical output in the smallest possible size - combine lithium with one of many different metal compounds.

There have been steady improvements over the centuries, but modern batteries are still based on the same principle of Volta: putting together materials that can induce an electrochemical reaction and taking away the electrons produced.

But before artificial batteries began generating electricity, electric fish , such as the electric rays of the Mediterranean and especially the freshwater electric eels of South America, were well known for their ability to generate power. Incredible electricity.

In fact, electric fishes inspired Volta to conduct the initial research that eventually led to the creation of batteries, and today's battery scientists still rely on these electricity-generating animals to find idea.

Freshwater electric eels in South America are famous for their ability to generate incredible amounts of electricity. (Illustration).

Inspired by electric eels

Before the advent of the Volta battery, the only way for humans to generate electricity was to rub various materials together, typically silk on glass, and collect static electricity . This is not an easy or practical way to generate useful electrical energy.

Volta knew electric fish had a specialized internal organ to generate electricity. He reasoned that imitating this operating principle could find a new way to generate electricity.

The fish's electrical organs consist of long stacks of cells that look a lot like a roll of coins. So Volta cut coin-like discs from separate sheets of material and began stacking them in different sequences to see which combinations could generate electricity.

These stacking experiments yielded only unsuccessful results until he tried pairing copper discs with zinc discs, while separating the stacked pairs with paper discs wetted with salt water.

This copper-zinc paper chain randomly generates electricity, and the electricity output is proportional to the height of the paper stack. Volta thought he had discovered the secret to how eels generate electricity and created their artificially generated version of electricity, so he initially called his discovery "artificial electric organs". However, the nature is inherently wrong.

Eels use an approach similar to how our neurons generate electrical signals. (Illustration).

What really makes eels electric?

Scientists today know that the electrochemical reactions between different materials that Volta discovered have nothing to do with how electric eels generate electricity. Rather, the eel uses an approach similar to how our neurons generate electrical signals , but on a much larger scale.

Specialized cells in the eel's electrical organs pump ions across the semipermeable membrane barrier to create a charge difference between the inside and outside of the membrane.

When the microscopic gates in the membrane open, the rapid flow of ions from one side of the membrane to the other creates an electric current. The eel can simultaneously open all of its membrane ports at will to create a massive electrical current, released in a targeted manner onto its prey.

Electric eels do not shock their prey to death; they just stun the target with electricity before attacking. An eel can generate hundreds of volts of electricity, but the voltage does not push enough current for long enough to kill its prey. Each electric pulse from the eel lasts only a few milliseconds and supplies less than 1 amp, or 5% of a household's current.

This is similar to how an electric fence works, providing very short high-voltage electrical pulses but with very low amperage. Therefore, they are shocking enough but do not kill bears or other intrusive animals that want to climb over.

It is similar to modern electroshock weapons, operating by delivering extremely high voltage pulses (about 50,000 volts) carrying very low current (just a few milliamps).

Volta with his experiments.

Attempt to imitate eels

Like Volta, some modern electrical scientists are looking to transform battery technology with inspiration from electric eels.

A group of scientists from the US and Switzerland is currently researching a new type of battery inspired by eels.

They envision that this soft and flexible battery could one day be useful for providing internal power to medical implants and soft robots. But the group admits there is a long way to go.

"The electrical organs in eels are extremely sophisticated; they generate energy much better than we do ," laments Michael Mayer, a team member from the University of Fribourg. So eel research continues.

In 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries. When awarding the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences affirmed that the awardees' work had "laid the foundations for a wireless, fossil fuel-free society".

The "wireless" part is correct, as lithium-ion batteries now power virtually all portable wireless devices, and smartphones are one of them.

Later that year, scientists from the Smithsonian Institute announced the discovery of a new species of electric eel in South America; notably this is the most powerful biological generator known on Earth.

Researchers recorded an eel's electrical discharge at 860 volts, much higher than the previous record holder eel's 650 volts.

Just as humans are taking pride in creating the newest source of portable energy, electric eels continue to surpass us with their abundant energy sources.