Time to tap into it (Image: N. Seery/Wellcome Images)
AN ELECTRICAL phenomenon called ferroelectricity, used in computer memories, has popped up in the soft tissue of mammals.
The discovery raises the possibility of “electrician” drugs that switch off cholesterol’s ability to stick to arteries and, perhaps in the far future, bio-friendly memory for storing programs to run tiny implanted devices.
Electricity plays a vital role in the body, transmitting nerve and muscle impulses, for example. Natural electric fields also appear to aid the development of embryos and the healing of wounds. “We are actually electric,” says …
