GBF - Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung
Abstract
Living organisms contain pyroelectric structures which function extremely
well as pyroelectric detectors and transducers. Organisms
are thus able to detect and discriminate between different stimuli
in the environment, such as rapid changes of temperature, of illumination,
of uniaxial and hydrostatic pressure. The different stimuli
represent different forms of energy and are transduced into the
nearly uniform type of electrical signals, whose voltage/time-course
frequently depends on dX/dt (X, stimulus; t, time). The voltage/timecourses
of the pyroelectric responses of biological systems (like
nerve tissue) on the one hand, and of nonbiological pyroelectric
crystals (like tourmaline) or nonbiological pyroelectric polymers
(like polyvinylidene fluoride) on the other hand, to external
stimuli are analogous
