Luigi Galvani
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Luigi Alyisio Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798) was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1791, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. He was cutting the frogs' legs as an experiment trying to prove that a frog's testicles were actually in their legs. He was quickly proved wrong by other biologists at the University of Pavia.
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Legacy
- Galvani's report of his investigations were mentioned specifically by Mary Shelley as part of the summer reading list leading up to an ad hoc ghost story contest on a rainy day in Switzerland — and the resultant novel Frankenstein — and its reanimated construct. However, there is no direct mention of electrical reanimation in Frankenstein.
- Galvani's name also survives in the Galvanic cell, Galvani potential, galvanic corrosion, the galvanometer and galvanization.
- The crater Galvani on the Moon is named after him.
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