The siren song of Gnathonemus petersii

Education Science
The siren song of Gnathonemus petersii
electric_freaking_fish.jpg

OK, so, it’s not exactly a song. It’s more like a clicky, morse-codey, geiger-countery sort of buzz. Nonetheless, it is generated by an electric fish, and you can hear it yourself just by wiring a piezoelectric earphone across the water in your fish tank. Provided, of course, that said water contains said electric fish. If that seems like too much work, then you can just download the sound from here. While you’re at it, read all about the details of the so-called “Elephant Nose Fish” and its so-called “electric organ.” I’m not making any of this up.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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