Supervisor: Jan Arlt

We are constantly using electricity and living without it is unimaginable for us. But not only humans use electricity in their life, also animals use electrodynamic phenomena for their benefit. This presentation will focus on two species, geckos as well as electric eels and provide a glimpse into these animals making use of electrodynamic phenomena.

The first part will focus on geckos. They are known for their ability to walk up walls or hang upside down on ceilings. But the physical principle behind this ability has only been verified for a short time. In this presentation the experiment which led to the discovery of this principle and the fascinating design of gecko feet will be discussed.

In the second part, we focus on electric eels and take observations of them made by Alexander von Humboldt as a reason to take a closer look at electric eels. We will investigate how they generate electric shocks and how they use those for defense.