辞洋HA114.NET

Opening certain channels causes electrons to flood out of the cell, producing enough electricity to stun the eel's victim.

IN DECEMBER 2007, a Japanese aquarium hooked up the lights on a Christmas tree to a tank containing an electric eel.

This movement of charged ions, when the eel is in a conductive solution like water, creates an electric current.

And once he was nearly electrocuted by an electric eel.

Fish that use electric fields to sense their environments dim their signals to save energy during the day when they are resting.

The fish's standard electrical signal runs at 100 hertz; if you turn the electrical signal into sound, it sounds like a hum high whine.

The electric eel (not a true eel) is a sluggish inhabitant of slow freshwater, surfacing periodically to gulp air.

"We now understand how the natural electric eel cells work, " said David LaVan of NIST.

The shock from an electric eel is powerful enough to knock a man out.