PO WER - XX LO Gdańsk - Electricity in biology - UG

ELECTRICITY IN BIOLOGY

WHO/ WHERE/ WHEN? • In May, class second A was at the University of Gdańsk.

Thanks to our biology teacher Ms. Piełowska we could meet a professor, who tried to explain us a few topics from physics and generally science. Excercises were very interesting and gave us answer to many questions. How about seeing what we were doing?

• At the beginning we were checking current flow on our skin.

• Proffesor told us about Ohm’s law, wchich operates in physics.

• We used special equipment to this research like electrostatic machine.

INTRODUCTION

All the photos in the presentation/film were taken on our own

• We also heard about Luigi Galvani. He was an Italian doctor. Thanks to frog’s leg he figured out the truth about tension and potencial - because the death animal was moving. It was in 1780.

SOME THEORIES

All the photos in the presentation/film were taken on our own

• There are also some species of electric fish. For example, eel, catfish and cramp-fish. Sometimes they can create 300-600 watt voltage! They are using current mainly to hunt, kill victim or communicate. Remember, they are dangerous for humans.

WONDERFUL TREATMENT

All the photos in the presentation/film were taken on our own

• Professionaly it is called reflex knee. It is connected with the impact of hammer on the kneecap. The natural reaction is that part of human’s body will move up. It doesn’t hurt because the hammer is pneumatic. It is helpful in checking nervous system.

LET’S PRACTISE!

All the photos in the presentation/film were taken on our own

• We have found out what is hyperventilation and slowed breath. We have seen on our eyes how it works. First our classmate had to put the head out the window and breathe very fast for a few minutes. Then we plugged him to special device and saw on the graph what happened with his body inside.

BREATH

• We have also got chance to check other parameters like blood pressure, sweating hands and body temperature. One person was sitting on the chair and we were trying to influence on the result of experiment. For example, we scared or distracted our friend.

ALL PARAMETERS

• One person was kicked by the current. She was holding wet paper on the hand which was conductor of electricity and the teacher increased the power. After a few minutes the fingers were shaking and the thumb folded up. The person couldn’t do anything with it.

THE THUMB

• At the end we measured force of palm. Girl and boy were holding the device very tightly for a few seconds. We saw on the screen who was stronger and who had better durability. It isn’t as easy as it looks like.

WOMEN VS MEN

SOURCES: http://agrobiznes.money.pl/artykul/ryby-

elektryczne,59,0,1801275.html http://antysocjal.blog.onet.pl/2009/05/14/prawo-galvaniego/ http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odruch_rzepkowy http://www.szkolnictwo.pl/szukaj,Maszyna_elektrostatyczna

XX Secondary School in Gdańsk, PolandSupervision: Agnieszka JackiewiczConsultation: Beata PiełowskaAuthors: Katarzyna Boros

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!