What I Learnt For The Week 24: Biohybrid Robot, Hysterical Strength, Necrophobia, Polydactylism, Platy Fish Gives Birth Alive.

Hello Buddies! Welcome again to another episode in the series of "What I learnt for the week". Over the period of last week (25th - 29th June), I made some amazing discoveries; of which I would select some random 5 to represent the lessons learnt for each day of the week.

Monday: Biohybrid Robot

You may have heard about the speculations of humans merging with machines; probably to save our arses from becoming obsolete. But as it were, robots; to the uninitiated; have been viewed as some bunch of metals, nuts, screws, and bolts, but all these are about to change with the emergence of the robots that would be built on living human tissues; and that is the biohybrid robot.

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We may have heard about the humanoid robot - which is a kind of robot modelled to simulate and/or mimic the functionality of the biological body. This was popularized by the advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence; and some human-like features have been seen to be incorporated into these machines. For example; Sophia the robotic citizen, robots that sweat, and all whatnot. But these machines have obvious limitations (even with the complexities of each component) - they still lack the intricate organic materials found in the biological body; in other words, they ain't living.

Have you ever thought about incorporating living tissues into these machines to make them more viable and to have more organic functions? That's the idea behind biohybrid robotics. To make it clearer; let's break the words apart: "bio" (relating to biology, organic, or something living), "hybrid" (combination of something to yield a better result). So by inference, biohybrid robots are the kind of robots that incorporates the biological tissues (such as found in humans) into machines.

A particular research was heralded by a team of researchers from University of Tokyo; which was also recognized as one of the first attempts to design robots from living tissues (the prototype was from rat). This robots looked simple and operated like the biological fingers - and awesomely enough, are moved by means of muscles, as against the others that move by mechanical or pneumatic aids. Okay let's take a look at this YouTube video to have an insight in this.

Imagine a case where further advancement is made on this - for people who need prosthesis; a biohybrid arm can come in handy; and this would be created from the tissues cultured from their own stem cells. Look at what one of the lead researchers had to say about this; in reaction to the video I provided earlier.

More muscles can be combined into a single device and can produce more complex muscular interconnections (just like the biological hand) - Dr Shoji Takeuchi [Paraphrased from this source]

So you see, and era is approaching where the line dividing biology and technology would be completely blurred off, and we would have a seamless merger with machines.

Wanna know more, click here.

Tuesday: Hysterical Strength

I'm sure you must have seen the superman movie and his ability to lift a car of over 2000pounds with just one hand. Holy lamb!! How da heck did he do that? - I mean, is this even possible in real life? Well, don't be too quick to answer in the negative; just hang on.

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Let's take a look at this; according to this publication; a woman exhibited this heroic unnatural feat. She was working on her suv car while it was jacked up, and suddenly, her son ran into the jack; it fell and trapped the poor boy partly. And without a second thought, she lifted the car and dragged his son's arse out of the car. Does this sound like fiction? Okay here's another case. A particular grandma; Marie Payton; was mowing her lawns, and suddenly, one of her granddaughters ran into the mower, and got stuck. Not standing to see her granddaughter chopped by the lawn mower, grandma picked and threw the heavy mower aside like a damn paper.

Okay enough of the stories. Someone might ask, what is the cause of this heroic strength? I'll try to break it down in a layman's term. Remember what I told you in the last WILFTW episode about bullet time; the same principle applies here, but in a different manner. Just like I made mention, the human brain perceives and views events either rationally or experientially. When there is an obstruction in that perception (by reason of a sudden event), there is the propensity of an outburst of adrenaline, and we know that this hormone functions in capacity as the flight/fight hormone. In that case, your rational perception (which normally allows you to think of an action before performing it) would be overridden by the experiential perception, and you can do unnatural feats. But it is worthy to note that this happens in seconds and thus, short-lived.

Many people; just like the example I gave; have been reported to lift heavy stuffs momentarily when confronted with situations of life-and-death. A friend of mine once told me a story of a guy that was accosted by armed bandits in his house, and without any option left, he grabbed the burglary proof and pulled it from the wall and escaped from there. Though medical science have had a hard time pin-pointing the exact cause of this unusual strength, but it has been believed that this is directly related to the increase in stress level, thus triggering an emergency response to effect the required actions. And because these responses are without prior warning, it has been a huge task replicating the same effect in a controlled environment.

So you won't be wrong to infer that there is a correlation between adrenaline surge and super strength. Also some have argued that this could be borne out of extreme fear, and when this happens, signals would be sent to the hypothalamus which relays information to the adrenal gland to trigger the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, thus releasing the adrenaline to quicken your body for some unnatural feats. But don't try to lift a car naturally, because you probably might not go pass the tyres, lol.

Wanna know more, click here.

Wednesday: Necrophobia [Fear of death]

There has been an assertion that death is inevitable for every living thing. When we were in high school, we were told that death is one of the characteristics of living things, so if this is true, then everyone is expected to throw in the towel one day right? But some have weird and irrational fear and feelings that theirs would come sooner; and this type of fear is called Necrophobia.

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This term is gotten from the Greek term "Nekros" (which is related to corpse), and of course "phobia" which means "fear of". I remember when I lost my dad some years ago; and after the burial; some nights I would be imagining that the spirit of my dad might walk into the room; and before I know wassup, chills of fear would cloak my entire body. And for that period, I feared death and anything that had to do with it - even attending funerals/burials; but I soon overcame it though.

Causes of fear of death

Just like some other forms of fear, necrophobia can be acquired overtime. And the greater percentage of the causes of this is a previously awful experience - for example; if you have watched a close relative die a gruesome death, it wouldn't be unnormal for you to develop this phobia. Also, some people can pick up this phobia as a sympathetic phobia (for example; as a kid, if you stay with people having anxiety about death; you can also develop this fear).

Some people have painted some horrifying pictures (maybe through stories or movies) about the supernatural and other weird folklores, and this can send the fear of death into the minds of some gullible people, which can ultimately lead them to dread the unknown (death; in this instance). I remember a story that was once told when we were kids - that if you're leaving your house for a journey, and squirrel runs across your path, the option you have is to ditch the journey and go back to your house; but proceeding on that journey would be catastrophic (and may result to accident and death). Who believes this shit? Well, some actually do - and this has led many to develop necrophobia.

Symptoms of necrophobia

Just like you have been told that this fear is related to death; the symptoms present themselves when the sufferers come around corpses (like in funerals), or the sight of cadavers, but in some rare cases, even the thought of dying can send a death-feeling in their hearts, with symptoms such as:

• Unnatural sweating
• Palpitation and increased heart rate, which can be accompanied by the body trembling
• Gross avoidance for funerals and anything that will bring him/her close to corpse.

If you have been abreast with the news lately, you would have heard about a catastrophe that happened here in Nigeria - a fuel tanker caught fire and obliterated hundreds of people. For people living around this places and seeing their loved ones burn, this fear can be triggered in their hearts. But it is worthy to note that this fears can be overcome - by relating your mind to the fact that death doesn't just occur in a randomized manner; and there are cause-and-effect to it; this can help you to live above the fear of death.

Wanna know more, click here.

Thursday: Polydactylism (multiple fingers/toes)

The human fingers and toes are meant to be five in number right? But have you ever seen anyone with more than five fingers or toes? This is called polydactylism. I used to have a neighbour with a small protrusion beside his pinky finger. I never really looked at it differently until the day I touched it - the damn protrusion (though small) had a bone in it; just like the rest of the fingers. Though I didn't know what it was then, but this is a case of polydactylism.

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It is worthy to note that this condition is congenital, and according to this source, it is caused by genetic transmutation while at the embryonic stage. In the course of the development of embryos in the womb; during the formation of the hand; it normally has a slat-shape, but in the later months, they would be divided to form fingers. During this division; in the case of polydactylism; the fingers would be divided with extra fingers.

This condition; according to this source; is predominant in Africa (about 1 out of every 143 births). And can come in any form - which includes:

• Preaxial polydactylism: When the extra finger or toe forms outside the thumb or the big toe. Most times, they are smaller than the true thumb or big toe.
• Postaxial polydactylism: This is the opposite of the above. The additional finger or toe forms outside the pinky finger or the small toe.
• Central polydactylism: In this case, the extra digits can be embedded within any of the fingers or toes.

According to the same source I referenced earlier, the commonest of all is the postaxial polydactylism. There have also been recorded cases of multiple fingers and toes. The case of Akshat Saxena wowed the world - 10 fingers on each hands, and 7 toes on each leg (making a total of a whopping 34 fucking digits; as against 20).

In some cases, the extra digits can be removed surgically and a reconstruction surgery can be done for some. But some are just left as they are - as this does not pose any known heath issues to the person, and he/she can live a fairly normal life.

Wanna know more, click here.

Friday: Platy fish gives birth alive

Some fishes are known to lay eggs, and after a while, they are hatched into fries. But there are some exceptions to this; and a very weird one is the case of platy fish. This is known to give birth to young ones alive. Let's look at how this fish gives birth from this YouTube video.

This sexy fish comes in various colour combination. No wonder they are used in private aquariums, but can also be found in the wild - they are majorly found in the fresh waters of Mexico and Central America. Another fact is this - they can birth dozens of fries at the same time. Isn't that amazing?

But on the other hand, these creatures are infanticidal (that is; they can feed off on their fries). Okay, that's pretty cruel; but just to let you know that mama platy has no sense of humor at all.

To see other weird facts about platy, click here.

Okay buddies, this is the summary of the lessons I learnt for the week. And until I come your way again, don't stop learning. @samminator says so. Special thanks to @mobbs

Thanks for reading

References for further reading:

• Futurism/Creating biohybrid robot
• livescience/Biohybrid Robot
• Techspot/Biohybrid Robot
• Howstuffworks/Hysterical strength
• Necrophobia
• childrenshospital.org/polydactylism
• medicalnews-polydactylism
• aquariumtidings.com/platy fish

All Images are CC0/Public Domain Licensed and are linked to their sources

gif by @foundation