Electric eels use electricity to stun prey and sense their surroundings Danny Ye/Shutterstock
A pulse of electricity from an electric eel can make other fish take up DNA from the water in a tank. If this process occurs in nature, it could help organisms acquire new traits and evolve in unexpected ways.
In laboratories, scientists use electricity to create temporary pores in a cell membrane – a process called electroporation – which allows genetic material to be transferred into cells. Atsuo Iida…
