• Question: Do you know how electric animals produce the amount of electricity that they do?

    Asked by anon-173955 to Yewande, Tim, Melanie, Hayley, Carl, Alex on 14 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Carl Barford

      Carl Barford answered on 14 Jun 2018:

      I haven’t a clue, I can only guess it is related to muscles and nerves – but I am going to do a search on the internet to find out now. Just one word of caution – not everything you read is true

    • Photo: Alex Seeney

      Alex Seeney answered on 15 Jun 2018:

      They have specialised organs that are made for this. These organs are made up of special cells called electrocytes, which allow ions to flow through them, creating something called potential difference. To release electricity, the brain sends a signal to the electrocyte cells, which allow sodium to flow through, reversing the potential and generating an electric current, much like a battery does.

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