What I Learnt For The Week 14: Self-Lacing Shoes, Craniopagus Parasiticus (Two Heads), Aerophobia, Human Magnetism, Blue-Blooded Octopus

Hello Buddies!! Welcome once again to another episode in the series of "What I Learnt For The Week", and thanks to @mobbs for the continued privileges.

Over the period of last week (16th - 20th April), I made some amazing discoveries, of which I would select some random 5 to represent the discoveries made for each day of the week.

Okay buddies, let's go straight to the lessons learnt. This episode promises to be educative and exciting.

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Monday: Self-Lacing Shoes

Like you have already known; and without an exception to this particular episode; I normally begin with lessons learnt from emerging technology on "Robotics and Machines".

The field of emerging technology has seen so much advancements lately. The other time, we saw the self-parking slippers and the abilities which they possess. But clearly, technology has advanced a little further into the production of smart shoes that would self-lace.

Have you ever been so much in a hurry to run out of the house that you forgot to lace your shoes properly? Well, it does happen, and here's a potential solution for you; the "self-lacing shoes". Now, no need to lace your shoes; just stick your feet in and boom!! The job would get done. This is designed by Nike and it's called "Nike Mag".

Mechanics of the self-lacing shoes

This shoe is equipped with a sensor at the sole to detect the presence of the human feet in it, which is also connected to some micro-motors at the top back corner of the shoes. The work of the motor is to tighten the laces once the sensor passes a signal to it.

But for the event of the motor failing to tighten the laces automatically, the shoe is also incorporated with some buttons which you can press to either tighten or loosen the laces. Now, that sounds like the future, but it is already here with us. The shoes are powered by rechargeable batteries (and Yes! you can charge them the same way you charge your normal rechargeable devices).

Phewww!! Too much talk; look, I've got a video for you from YouTube to show you how this shoes work and how they look like.

Now you may say that technology is making humans to live a sedentary lifestyle. Well, in my opinion, technology is here to assist humans after all.

Wanna know more about the self-lacing shoes? Click here.

Tuesday: Craniopagus Parasiticus (Two heads)

Humans are born with only one head right? Okay, do you know that there's a medical condition in which someone could be born with more than one head (two; as it were)? This is known as Craniopagus Parasiticus. This could sound so weird, but it is an actual medical condition, though very rare.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Licensed]

This is actually an extreme case of Asymmetrical twinning or what we call "parasitic twin", which occurs when identical (monozygotic) twins start the normal developmental process in the uterus, but one of the monozygotic twins stops mid-way during the development. Though the cause of this is relatively unknown, but when this happens, the embryo that fully develops would be the dominant embryo (autosite), while the other one would be the parasitic embryo.

Here's a little tip for you before I continue: Monozygotic twins are resultant effect of a single sperm fertilizing one ovum, and then completely splitting into two. That is why they are called identical twins.

It is also worthy to note that Craniopagus Parasiticus is quite different from Siamese twins (in which the twins are fused together; which in most cases; do function independently of each other). But in the case of Craniopagus Parasiticus; most often; the host twin is fully developed, with a fusion of another head which has a grossly underdeveloped or totally undeveloped body. Now that's pretty weird.

In most cases of Craniopagus Parasiticus, they are born still or they barely survive infancy and die later. There have been only about 10 recorded cases of Craniopagus Parasiticus (that shows how rare they are) out of which, about 70% of them were still birth.

I'm sure you may want to read up more info on Craniopagus Parasiticus, click here.

Wednesday: Aerophobia (fear of flying)

Since the advent of aeroplane, traveling has been made easier. Now your destination is just a flight away; which could be for, maybe, vacation, or for science research trip (just like our very own traveling professor @lemouth, lol). But do you know that there are some people who have very intense, irrational, and unconditional fear of flying? Yes! This is a real fear, and it is called "Aerophobia".

[Image Source: Maxpixel. CC0 licensed]

The term "Aerophobia" is gotten from a portmanteau of "Aero" (which is related to "flying") and "phobia" which means "fear of". This can also be called "Aviophobia", and it is manifested when someone begins to grow dislike for flying generally. This can also cause people to feel very anxious prior to traveling by air, which can also be a manifestation of another form of fear; which is "fear of the unknown".

Symptoms

The symptoms of Aerophobia could include:

• Vomiting: This is quite common for aerophobic people, especially during takeoff, landing, or jerking.

• Increased heartbeat or heart palpitation

• Unnatural sweating

• Gross avoidance of flying

In some rare cases of aerophobia, the sufferers tend to extend their irritability to the air staff (pilots, air hostess/host, cabin crew). Now that's really weird.

Causes of Aerophobia

The greater cause of this is linked to past experiences. For example; someone that has experienced an air crash of near-crash, or someone that may have lost a loved one to air crash; it would not be unnatural for him/her to develop this phobia. Like I said before, phobias can be acquired and can grow over time.

Also, some people that have the fear of open space (Agoraphobia) or fear of height (Acrophobia) can also have this phobia as a complementary phobia. It is also more common in the older people, but this does not mean that the younger folks can't have this. I will tell you for free that one of my friends has this, and he would prefer to take vehicle over long distances than to fly. The fear of flying can; in some rare cases; degenerate to the fear of death (Thanatophobia).

Wanna know more about Aerophobia? Click here.

Thursday: Human Magnetism

We all know what magnet and magnetism is. At least we may have all seen a piece of magnet. The objects that magnetize other objects can be in form of ferromagnets, paramagnets, or diamagnets.

But do you know that an exception has arisen in which the human skin can magnetize metals (This is extremely very rare though). And someone might be saying that this does not obey the laws of physics; but buddies, there are many things that do not obey the laws of physics. And yes! Such people exist, and they are referred to as "Human Magnets".

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Henry Assen. CC BY-SA 3.0 Licensed]

Human magnetism is actually the ability of some people to magnetize objects onto their skin (just like a bar magnet). Don't be too quick to say it's not possible.

Apart from some few people that have this ability, a particular case has been seen to throw the world into awe; and that is the case of Liew Thow Lin (A.K.A the magnetic man). He has a very strong magnetic field that he once set off the world record when he pulled a car using a metal plate magnetized to his chest which is hooked onto a chain to the car. Now that's incredible (and we all know that this does not follow the known laws of physics), no wonder why he has often been referred to as "magneto" (after the X-men Magneto).

Liew has recognized his ability as a gift. And awesomely enough, it has been seen to be inherited by his children, and even his grandchildren (could this be a resultant effect of a genetic transmutation?).

Wanna know more about human magnetism, click here.

Friday: Blue-Blooded Antarctic Octopus

Blood has always been thought to be a red fluid by the uninitiated, but you'll find out shortly that this is not always the case. I present to us the creature; Antarctic Octopus (Pareledone charcoti), which has blue blood.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain Licensed]

You may be wondering where the colour "blue" comes from. Here's a little tip for you before I continue: In the normal human blood, the colour "red" comes from an iron-rich compound (hemoglobin), which also functions as the transportation medium for oxygen from the lungs.

Now, in the case of Antarctic Octopus, the blood contains hemocyanin (protein rich in copper) as against the hemoglobin. And we all know from our elementary chemistry that copper ion has a characteristic blue colour. This is actually what turns the blood blue (should we say "thanks" to evolution? Maybe not).

There are also some other non-red blood creatures out there, maybe with time, we will be exploring some of them in the subsequent episodes.

I'm sure I've piqued your interest; you wanna know more about the Antarctic Octopus, click here.

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Okay buddies! This is the summary of some of the discoveries I made for the week. And until I come your way again, don't stop learning. @samminator says so.

Thanks for reading

References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4, Ref5, Ref6, Ref7, Ref8, Ref9, Ref10

All images are CC licensed and are linked to their sources

gif by @foundation