When I get up to stand, it doesn’t occur to me to question how I can move because, well, we’ve figured it out. But there was a time when the way our tissues and nerves produced movement was a complete mystery. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Turns out, the quest to figure such a simple thing out inspired one of the greatest gothic science fiction stories of all time: Frankenstein . Ahead of the Netflix release from director Guillermo del Toro, let's take a look at the real science that inspired its original creator, Mary Shelley.

Luigi Galvani and "animal electricity"

Our story begins with Luigi Galvani , an Italian physician who, in the 1780s, began doing some rather eye-opening experiments with frogs. Like m

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