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Mimicking Electric Eel Cells
An anonymous reader writes "A team of US researchers has asked the following question in the new field of systems biology: 'Do we understand how a cell produces electricity well enough to design one, and to optimize that design?' They believe it should be possible to build artificial cells replicating the electrical behavior of electric eel cells. In fact, such artificial cells could deliver better performance — as much as 40% more energy than real eel cells, a computer model suggests. They could be used to power medical implants and other small devices."
All I need is a few of these cells in my fingertips ...
If those implanted cell develop malignancy and start metastasising around, we're going to discover shocking consequences~
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The fuel (food) is not as efficient as a purely chemical and non-biological approach.
On the other hand, eating is much simpler and the patient already happens to do it,
compared to having to swap batteries around.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Just creating the membranes would produce the equivalent of an artificial zombie cell, with no self-repair mechanisms and no way to replace them. A battery like this would be subject to attack by the immune system and by bacteria in the body, and likely "rot" in no time. Without the whole mechanism of a living cell to sustain it ... without the "brain" of the cell... it would need to be sealed and unable to take advantage of the bodies supply of ATP.
Better to see if you can enhance human cells, maybe even the recipient's own cells, to do the job.
We need to add biocapacitor cells as well. Eel + biocapacitors == Dragonball Z FTW!
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Tanks of genetically modified eel cells are efficient.
We machines only used humans because it's amusing.
Can they be used to power hovercrafts?
true, but there are other advantages.
for instance, if electronic implants become more mainstream, it would be useful for certain applications to power the implanted device via electrocytes rather than a rechargeable battery. rechargeable batteries, like all chemical batteries, wear out over time, and need to be replaced. this may require invasive surgery. if instead the patient were also given a bioimplant of electrocytes around the electronic device, then there would be guaranteed power source for the rest of the patient's life since the electrocytes would be self-replicating.
and the inefficiency of metabolic (or catabolic in this case) processes isn't an issue. most people living in developed nations have an excess of fat stores and energy reserves. and outside of extreme survival situations, most people don't have to ration their food intake or energy expenditure. it's not like having some electrocyte implants will cause a person to eat more food. an average person's food intake has nothing to do with their energy expenditure. most people can probably use burning some extra calories once in a while.
Can't we just implant a real eel? You know like the Jaffa have on Stargate.
I can't really think of any downside, oh wait...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Robert Downey-Junior already has the ultimate power source up his nose. Just make one of them electrical paralysers (ebay kits I think) and take it from him. Get the dude to do it if you're squeamish.
I record my sleeptalking
I immediately thought that you could use it to run an onboard storage device to keep you own personal medical records - then I realized that apart from being a privacy nightmare an inductively powered system made more sense like they shove into pets necks.
Then I thought "pace maker" - but realized that a long life battery (well its only got to outlast the patient that its in) it probably more reliable and less likely to trigger a lawsuit.
So then maybe I thought self-defence mechanism - but I realized that the amount of power that would need would be impractical.
Perhaps some dancing light that light you up on the dance floor the more you dance, the brighter you get?
I'm short of ideas on any practical application here, anybody got any nifty ideas?
Patient: Doctor, my pace maker needs a recharge.
Doctor: Ok, hold onto this for a moment would you? (hands patient a live eel)
For some unexplainable reason - only in Hungary.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Not so far fetched given 30 years. If you were able to successfully add this capability to a human being, would it still be a Homo Sapiens? But lets just say it happens, then you can power pacemakers or even bionic bodyparts on internal power, without the need for batteries, recharging, fuel cells, etc. So if you do that you need to provide energy for the electric cells. For an otherwise normally functioning person, this would require an increased daily caloric intake. You have to wonder where we will get all the food people will need to eat when the world population is about 8.7 billion in 2035.
- Turning green
- developing more animalistic tendencies and features
- flying through the air in a rolled up ball
- and an uncontrollable urge to participate in fighting tournaments
Should one or more of these symptoms occur, please see a medical professional or martial arts trainer immediately.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
There's no reason why they have to be let loose in the body. The only requirement is that tissue fluid be allowed to get in to provide sugars or ATP, so you can stick them in a cage lined with semipermeable membrane. The article hinted that they would be used this way.
Maybe Monty Python was on to something...