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A new study finds that there are actually three species of electric eel.
For hundreds of years, scientists had thought there was just one species of Electrophorus, the electric eel, swimming through Amazonian waterways. Turns out, there’s three. And one of the newly described taxa delivers an electric discharge of 860 volts, “making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator,” the authors write in their report, published in Nature Communications today (September 10).
[...] Carl Linnaeus described Electrophorus electricus 250 years ago, and since then it's been the lone species in the genus. Then along comes Carlos David de Santana. As a kid, he watched electric eels swim in the Amazon River, and now as an ichthyologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, he studies its—or rather, their—natural history.
Also at The Atlantic, The Truth About Electric Eels Has Long Been Overlooked.
(Score: 4, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 12 2019, @05:12PM (4 children)
Well that reply explanation went to crap and I AC'd it to boot. Then I submitted during editing. Let's try just laying out my points in bullet:
* As little as 30mA can cause a fatal condition of respiratory arrest that doesn't recover.
* Around 75 - 100 mA at 120V AC, delivered straight across the heart, is enough to kill you.
* Lesser power (under 75 mA @ 120V AC) can also kill you by starting some other dysrhythmia which cascades into total electromechanical failure. (It doesn't take causing Ventricular Fibrillation off the bat).
* It's the Power, not the Current or Voltage, that kills. Or saves. Which means length of time of shock is more relevant than either the current or the voltage.
* Ventricular Fibrillation and Atrial Fibrillation are different. (New!) VFib is an immediate emergency. AFib may be but usually isn't a crisis.
* Sometimes abnormal rhythms (like caused by electrical shock) will remedy themselves with no further intervention.
* Sometimes drugs (lidocaine, amiodarone, digoxin) can cause a heart to snap out of irregular rhythm, no shock needed.
* The normal process of converting a dysrhythmia is called cardioversion. It uses a defibrillator but in a synchronized manner which delivers a lesser shock as soon as the heart has put out maximum voltage and contractility to reset the rhythm. Usually 50-150 Joules and around 0.25 seconds in length.
* Defibrillation is different from cardioversion, although both use a defibrillator machine. There are only two arrhythmias which can be defibrillated: pulseless Ventricular Tachycardia and Ventricular Fibrillation. Usually 200 biphasic or 350 monophasic Joules delivered up to 1.25 seconds. Multiple shocks may be delivered in conjunction with CPR and medication (Epinephrine 1mg delivered every 3 minutes.)
* You don't shock a "flatline" (asystole). To shock the heart requires that there be some existing electrical activity.
* AED's Save Lives at a FAR FAR greater rate than just doing CPR.
* PLEASE take a CPR/AED class. While you might never use it, the person you see drop needs high quality CPR - even without rescue breathing - long before the paramedics will arrive. You might save a life.
Thank you.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 12 2019, @05:14PM
and more more error for the pile. Where I say "power" above, I meant "energy". Not Watts, Joules. Sheesh.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday September 12 2019, @05:30PM (1 child)
Great information, thanks. The rule of thumb I always heard around lab environments was that 10 mA to 100 mA across the chest cavity was considered to be in the lethal zone for electric shocks, but it was never talked about in terms of energy or time duration, as you point out.
(Score: 4, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 12 2019, @08:25PM
No problem, happy to share what I know...
And I think the reason it's usually rationalized to current is because most people think in terms of 120VAC when they think electrical shock, and because of the potential of grip reflexes and possible inability to move from the source the amount of time usually isn't a consideration in the rescue. Consider the three circumstances, all at 120V
10 mA (12W) @ 4 seconds = 48 J
30 mA (36W) @ 3 seconds = 108 J
75 mA (90W) @ 2 seconds = 180 J
90 mA (108W) @ 2 seconds = 216 J
The lower two are cardioversion level energy delivery, which when synchronized should reset the pattern but unsynchronized may well cause a dysrhythmia - figuring the lower part of your armpit it at the level of the lowest part of your ventricles it could induce a 20 bpm rhythm which is unsurvivable.
The upper two are in the standard range of a defibrillator and could just as easily induce a VFib, flatline, or other nasty rhythm.
I think where I'm going is that whether you got hit with 40 mA for 3 seconds or 75 mA for 2 seconds, while different in terms of what it might do to the heart, is not something that one is likely to know when you're flat on your back.
I took a shock once off the secondary of a focusing module from a Sharp TV (closest thing they had to a Triac), probably 5000+ Volts at 1 mA for about a quarter second - I figure around 20J. Fortunately it went from my index finger and exited on the earth ground rail where my right knee was. It was still one heck of a kick.
Anyway, thanks again!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1) by NickM on Thursday September 12 2019, @08:02PM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !