ASGSB 1998 Annual Meeting Abstracts

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FERROELECTRIC-LIKE PROPERTIES OF HORNET STRUCTURES OR CONSTRACTION.   J.S. Ishay and L.Litinetsky. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine,ю Tel - Aviv University, Ramat - Aviv,69978, Tel - Aviv, Israel.

Various structures or constructions of the Oriental hornet Vespa orientalis ( Hymenoptera, Vespinae) such as the cuticle, the spun silk and the comb cell walls discharge an electric current. In the dark, at a temperature range of 5 - 330 C, this current increases with rise in the temperature and decreases as the temperature drops. Between the ascending and descending "lines" of the current, a broad hysteresis is formed.ю The created current may attain a level of up to 700 nano Amperes (nA). Upon exposure to light of the hornets or its constructions, the electric current diminishes within minutes to its minimal values, no hysteresis is formed between the warming and cooling lines and the voltage increases. The event described suggest that the structures or constructures in question contain polar materials that undergo change in conformation and polarized, becoming a capacitor with layers of opposite polarization. This explains why the voltage rises and the current decreases during exposure to light, whereas in the dark ( and at suitable temperature), the mentioned materials revert to a state of spontaneous polarization and gradually release, as electric current the charge that was picked up under illumination. The observed phenomena are characteristic of materials that are semiconductors endowed with ferroelectric properties. The influence of these properties on the gravity perception is discussed.

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