The heart of Aingi: a large sensor

1998/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia
• Ingurumena

Aquatech, a Tokyo company, has put a new task on eels. Researcher Kenji Namba discovered five years ago that the heart of the eels is sensitive to different components of water. Now, taking advantage of this feature, he has developed a curious system of measuring water quality.

The heartbeat of Aingi is accelerated or slowed against certain pollutants. For example, suspicion of trichloroethylene cancer accelerates the heartbeat. On the contrary, in waters with cadmium or cyanamide the beats are cushioned.

In this new system, the water that is wanted to study on the surface is pumped. Then the water passes through an acrylic tube in which, of course, the eel is located, whose heart is attached to some electrodes and which is the variable that turns on the alarm. If a sudden change occurs in the frequency of the beats, the alarm is automatically heard. When this happens, it is the eel itself that puts the new work to the researchers, who will have to take a sample of water and perform a deeper study in the laboratory.

The eels that have been placed in this special trade are those from a clean river in the area of Osaka, hence their special sensitivity.