MAD SCIENTIST OF THE WEEK: ZAPPED BY AN ELECTRIC EEL
by Hazed
In the history of scientists experimenting on themselves, here is a story that is among the most brave (or stupid, depending on your point of view). This mad scientist deliberately electrocuted himself by plunging his arm into a tank containing an electric eel.
Ouch!
He did this to calculate the power of the electric shocks generated by the eel on the human arm.
Kenneth Catania, a neurologist and biologist at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, said, “It was definitely a good lesson in how efficient the electric eel would be at deterring a predator.”
He explained, “Eels are essentially batteries immersed in water, and I wanted to solve the question of how powerful those batteries are. What’s the internal resistance of the battery? What’s the resistance of the water? My past research left out the last variable: my arm.”
The things people will do for knowledge!
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/15/scientist_zaps_himself_electric_eel/
