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Highly-Conductive Shark Jelly Could Inspire New Tech (gizmag.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from UC Santa Cruz, the University of Washington, and the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason found shark jelly to have the highest proton conductivity ever seen in a biological material. The jelly's conductivity begins to approach that of leading proton-conducting polymers. Tiny organs in the skin of sharks, skates and rays, called the ampullae of Lorenzini, are key to the ability. Scientists believe that the jelly is what has been able to allow these animals to detect weak electric fields produced by their prey, as the organs, which are visible as pores in the skin, are connected to electrosensory cells via long, jelly-filled canals. Marco Rolandi, a co-author on a paper detailing the findings in Science Advances, sees potential use for the "shark jelly" in the development of new or enhanced materials or even the creation of new sensor technology. "The observation of high proton conductivity in the jelly is very exciting," Rolandi said. "We hope that our findings may contribute to future studies of the electrosensing function of the ampullae of Lorenzini and the organ overall, which is itself rather exceptional."
Seems like that might be useful for having sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads.
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"The observation of high proton conductivity in the jelly is very exciting"
Because sharks don't have enough problems by getting turned into shark-fin soup in alarming numbers.
This discovery might lead to significant improvements in batteries and/or fuel cells.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
> Tiny organs in the skin of sharks, skates and rays, called the ampullae of Lorenzini, are key to the ability. Scientists believe that the jelly is what has been able to allow these animals to detect weak electric fields produced by their prey, as the organs, which are visible as pores in the skin, are connected to electrosensory cells via long, jelly-filled canals.
I believe those things might turn into some kind of eyes after some evolution. Just like snakes thermal sensitivity might become, too.
Why would anyone kill endangered sharks for their jelly? That's sickening. And besides, why is shark jelly necessary? There are plenty of other highly conductive substances that already exist. This isn't useful. It doesn't solve any problem. It's a waste of time and money. Can anyone give me a single practical use of this? The answer is surely no. But I'll be modded down to -1 for pointing this out. It's easier to hide the truth than it is to address it. I don't expect a single legitimate response, but I expect ad hominem attacks and to be censored at -1.
It must be shark jelly, because shark jam don't shake like that.
https://youtu.be/eR6J4XLXPAI
You are welcome on my lawn.
Anyone got a hypothesis for the natural selection process to create such organs?
Yea, I went there. Repent or burn in hell. Heathen. Jesus still loves ya...
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
Highly-Conductive Shark Jelly
I'm sure the orchestra will be both inspired and grossed-out.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Embed chemoluminescent elements into the jelly and attach full and semitransparent mirrors at both ends to make a resonance chamber. Then you will have a shark laser.
Protons are part of the nucleus. Did they mean electron conductivity?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The mom sitting at the kitchen table having just spread peanut butter on a piece of bread. She is holding another piece of bread and the knife is full of glop just dipped from a jar that says
HIGHLY CONDUCTIVE SHARK JELLY
The kid is sitting across from her. He is staring, aghast. He looks just like all the other kids in Gary Larson kids, wide-eyed and terrified and kind of stupid. It is but another moment in time in the Far Side universe when something normal with a cruel horrifying twist is visited upon its helpless characters.
No one says anything in the cartoon. The moment is beyond words.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Many species of sharks (which are some of the oldest species around) are threatened, we really shouldn't be turning them into jelly.
Well better than tossing them back in the ocean after you cut off their fins for soup.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Are we really ready for this?
Sharks are pretty amazing. Did you also know they do not get cancer, and generally don't get sick at all?
Sharks (and camels weirdly enough) have an extremely efficient immune system. Instead of producing antibodies, which are around 150 kDa in size to fight disease like most other multi-cellular creatures, they produce a much more efficient molecule, a single-domain antibody, essentially the same thing but around 12 to 15 kDa in size. The smaller size provides less variance in the produced molecule to fight the disease which makes it far more specific to eliminating it. If someone were crazy enough to raise and bleed sharks, they'd make highly efficient biologic drug molecules or diagnostic biomarkers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-domain_antibody
Oh Great! We weren't killing sharks for their fins fast enough that now we have to kill them for their jelly too?
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America