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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."
Because sharks don't have enough problems by getting turned into shark-fin soup in alarming numbers.
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.
Posts like yours get modded down because of their hysterical tone and detachment from reality. No one said anything about killing endangered sharks for their jelly. They did, however, say something about the development of new materials. And bio research as well; as the article 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."