Here's the problem with your connected aluminum thingy.
According to our model (Fig. 2), the minimal mass of glycoproteins needed to detect a field of 2 mV/m is M&1.4_10_18/2_10_6&0.7_10_12 kg, which corresponds to a sphere of about 11 mm in diameter. Electroreceptor cells have diameters of 10�20 mm. If we assume that the glycoproteins form prolate ellipsoids, it is easy to see that they could control the opening of 10�20 ion channels per cell, which could be sufficient to initiate transduction by the same mechanism as that occurring in stretch receptors. A 2-MDa hyaluronan molecule has a length of about 5 mm, and individual hyaluronan molecules can be linked together to form cables >200 mm [Day and de la Motte, 2005]. Thus, the force applied to the glycoproteins by the field could cause a simultaneous response in many cells.
You owe me $10.00.
