Singing sand dunes

That's cool - I hadn't heard of that before.

Thanks for sharing.

Patty

The pizoelectric effect is also how quartz watches maintain accuracy.  A thin quartz slice is cut and exposed to the electricity of the battery, which polarizes the crystal. In turn, the crystal produces its own electrical current with a specific frequency that is used to time the watch.

The piezoelectric effect is also used for various other electronics devices, lighters, pain relieving devices, etc.

What I have always found most interesting about the piezoelectric effect is the body's use of this principle to form bone.

Bone is not just calcium, and more than calcium is needed to form bone and keep it healthy.  The most important nutrient for healthy bone is silica, which is absorbed and utilized by the body in the form of orthosilicic acid (OA).  OA is used to form and mineralize bone, and is needed for the production of the structural proteins collagen, elastin and chondroitin and for proper functioning of the nervous system. Therefore, OA strengthens hair, nails, teeth bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, blood vessels, skin, etc.  And a lack of OA, which declines with age due to lower stomach acid levels, can contribute to osteoporosis, osteomalacia, osteopemia, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, diverticulitis, emphysema,  wrinkles, etc.

Other nutrients required for healthy bone are vitamin C, proline, lysine, glycine, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, strontium, boron, natural fluoride in trace amounts, traces of zinc and copper as catalysts, vitamins A, D, E, K and essential fatty acids.  This is one of the reasons that simply taking calcium, or using very dangerous osteoporosis drugs such as bisphosphonates do not work to reverse osteoporosis.

OA contains silica, which incorporated in to bone  as the structural proteins collagen and elastin, that give bones the majority of their strength and the flexibility to absorb force. If our bone were just calcium, our bones would easily snap like a piece of chalk.

When we exercise, we compress the silica, which stimulates the piezoelectric effect if the silica, and this electrodeposits minerals in to the protein matrix of the bone mineralizing the bone and increasing bone density.  This is why silica  and exercise are so important for bone density. Also why astronauts in space have a hard time maintaining bone density since it is hard to do weight bearing exercises in zero gravity.

It has also been known for many decades that this principle can be used to speed the healing of fractures.  Studies found that when electrodes are placed around the fracture, and minute electrical currents applied, this stimulates the piezoelectric effect of bone stimulating bone growth and healing the fractures at a greatly accelerated rate.

I used this same principle a long time ago to grow the end of my thumb back when I cut off about a third of the last digit off in a table saw accident.  Normally, this would not grow back on its own. A naturopathic doctor  I knew mentioned a silver impregnated nylon invention being used to regrow areas that had been amputated supposedly by driving the silver in to the tissue with electricity. He only had a small dime sized sample though. Some other people up there I knew had been doing more major regeneration of amputated limbs using electricity through argon electrodes. I did not have argon electrodes, but I found an old neon photospectrometer tube to use, and I had a 15,000 volt neon transformer to use. For the silver, I just made a concentrated colloidal silver solution that I soaked the stub in first, then ran the 15,000 volts through the neon tube, which helps disperse the charge, to the stub. It not only killed the pain, but in 6 months I grew the entire thumb, including the nail back. I still have a very tiny scar that is barely visible, and a little nerve damage in the thumb, but the whole thumb is back, which modern "medicine" claims is impossible.

I concluded later that the silver itself does not regenerate the tissue, but rather is the conductor for the electricity, as silver is an excellent conductor.  The electricity from the transformer stimulated the regrowth of the tissue as not only is the bone pizeoelectric, but the body itself is electric and thus tissues respond to minute electrical fields.  In fact, sharks for example have electrical detection organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini around their snouts that allow them to detect living prey in the dark, under the sand and even when sharks with nicotinic membranes ("eyelids") close their eyes to protect them.  So, our bodies are constantly generating and emitting electricity that one role would be for tissue generation.