How Sharks Sense Temperature Change 14
Makarand writes "Unlike mammals that use
ion channels in their cell walls to produce electrical currents and fire nerves
in response to changing temperatures, sharks have been found to be using
a totally different approach, one that does not rely on the ion channel mechanism at all.
According to this
article in Nature a temperature sensitive gel in the pores of the snout allows the shark to
sense temperature differences as little as 0.001 C. Increasing temperatures
improve electrical conductance of this gel which is noticed by
electrically sensitive nerve cells. This may also explain how
sharks are able to locate where water masses of different temperatures meet
in the oceans to find prey.
A synthetic version of the shark gel may be of interest to the microelectronics industry."
Hmmm..... (Score:1)
Typo in post text (what else is new) (Score:1, Offtopic)
The actual article says "Warming the gel - by as little as 0.1 C - increases its electrical conductance, Brown finds."
Still impressive, though.
Rant about what the duties of editors are supposed to be deleted...
Re:Typo in post text (what else is new) (Score:2)
So the submitter didn't get it wrong, but there seems to be a lack of explanation how they got from 0.1 to 0.001...
That's what I get for not RT(whole)FA before posting.
Applications... (Score:1)
Last time I tried reading this story, it disappeared. Not to mention the horrible load times lately. Can we get some news about what's up?
Sure but... (Score:1)
Re:Sure but... (Score:1)
meh - not quite there yet. (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong, i think that he'll eventually prove that, but until then, people shouldn't take such a prelimiary study and make so many assumptions about the consequences of the results.
Useful range? (Score:3, Interesting)
overheard by a sonar man (Score:2)