Scientist shocks himself with an electric eel so you don't have to

Before he was shocked by a leaping electric eel, Kenneth Catania wasn’t sure what it

would be like. In fact, no one was really sure. So, in the name of finding out exactly how much of a jolt the creatures could deliver, Catania, a professor at Vanderbilt University, volunteered his own arm. The eel jumped out of the water and into the air to deliver its shock. It looked like a nuzzle, but it packed the wallop of an electric fence. IT LOOKED LIKE A NUZZLE, BUT IT PACKED THE WALLOP OF AN ELECTRIC FENCE Catania’s report appears today in the journal Current Biology. While underwater jolts from eels are well-known, above-water shocks aren’t. In fact, until now, the behavior had been reported only once before — over 200 years ago by German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. The explorer described watching electric eels leap out of a shallow pool to electrify wild horses that had been herded into the water as eel bait. Catania observed something similar a few years ago in his own lab: when he reached into their tanks with a net, the eels would first try to dodge the mesh. Then, they’d leap at the net’s handle — unleashing crackling volleys of electricity. That made him suspicious that the shocking leaps were a way for the eels to defend themselves against land predators. After spending years studying the creatures, volunteering to be shocked by them “almost seemed like destiny, in a weird way,” Catania says. Leaping shocks — in the air — are more powerful than the shocks eels can deliver in the water. When an eel presses its chin against its victim to deliver a shock, electricity flows through the eel to the target. But water carries electricity, so the if the eel’s still submerged when it delivers the shock, the charge dissipates. When the eel’s airborne, more of the electrical current flows through its victim.                                                                                                   https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/14/16307866/electric-eel-leaps-shocks-zaps-scientist