You can see from this description how different nerve signals are from an electrical signal traveling down a wire. For a start, the current, the movement of charges, is not down the length of nerve cables in the direction of the nerve signal, but perpendicular to the direction of the action potential: from outside in, through those ion channels in the cell membrane. Also, immediately after the action potential is initiated by the opening of the first ion channels, they are slammed shut again and the ion pumps get to work on reestablishing the original battery voltage across the membrane. So
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