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Article PreviewThis is a preview of the full article. New Scientist Full Access is available free to magazine subscribers. To continue reading log in now, on the right. The body electric
HAS anyone told you lately you're electric? Well, you are. Your every pore oozes with the stuff. Must be all those ions you've been pumping. And we're not just talking about nerve impulses here: every surface of your body, from your skin to your cell membranes, is humming with electrical activity. Biologists have known for more than 200 years that nerve impulses are transmitted electrically. But only recently have they started eavesdropping on the electrical chatter of the rest of your body, and have discovered that electricity, in the form of electric fields, plays a vital role in numerous biological processes from embryonic development to cell division, nerve regeneration and wound repair. "The phenomenon is broadly applicable and I think we have only scratched the surface of something that is evolutionarily highly conserved and widely used," says Colin McCaig of the University of Aberdeen, UK, who has been working on ... The complete article is 2480 words long.
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