What I Learnt For The Week 6: Hangover suit, Alektorophobia, Sea spider, Explosive head syndrome, finger-charging

Hello buddies!! Welcome to another exciting episode in the series of “what I learnt for the week”. And for still allowing me to trail this path; my sincere appreciation goes to @mobbs.

Over the period of last week (19th – 23rd February), I made some amazing discoveries, which I will pick out random 5 (in no particular order) to represent the lessons learnt for each day of the week.

Okay buddies, let’s move straight to the lessons learnt for the week.

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Monday: The Suit that gives you hangover [no need for alcohol]

Just like my custom has always been, I would open up this episode with a lesson from one of my favorite areas; “Robotic and Machines”.

We live in a world where almost every life occurrence can be simulated virtually. But have you ever imagined simulating the effect of a hangover without even consuming a single bottle of alchohol? Well, think no further; the answer has already arrived.

[Image Source: Screenshot from the YouTube Video of “River City Ford Sales Ltd”]

We all know that the feeling of having a bottle of chilled drink is pretty awesome (for people that drink), but when taken in excess, it can lead to hangover, which could include effects like; sluggishness, headache, and increased sensitivity to light (which are just the commonest).

This is the same effect that the car manufacturing giant; Ford company, decided to simulate with the designing of a suit that will replicate the feeling of getting a hangover, while monitoring the behavioral patterns of the individual.

Dynamics of the suit

To create the suit, many things were taken into consideration, so as to replicate the effect in details. I will just run them down.

• To replicate the increased light sensitivity of people with hangover, the suit was incorporated with a lens that filters a particular wavelength of light, which also has a lamp to create the desired light wavelength. This lamp will shimmer light around the eyes to create the feeling of dizziness

• Also incorporated in the suit is a type of headset that amplifies the volume of the environmental sounds in the wearers’ ears. This headset is linked to a mobile device that would create (with an app) the sound of blood pulsating inside the person’s head (this would replicate the feeling of having a migraine).

• To create the feeling of exhaustion, a pretty heavy headgear is attached to the head, which will be fastened with a knob to replicate the desired effect.

And yes! I found a video from the official YouTube account of Ford (the makers of the suit).

So you see; you don’t even need to drink alchohol to have a hangover. Well, pretty suitable for people who don’t take alcohol but still want to have the feeling of hangover. All I can say is; grab the suit and enjoy your hangover :D

Have I piqued you interest? Check out more info here .

Tuesday: Alektorophobia (fear of chicken)

Chicken is a major part of our cuisine in this part of the world, but what if I tell you that some people have irrational fear of chicken, would you believe me?

Like we have been aware of; according to research, humans are born with only 2 phobias, which are; fear of loud noise (phonophobia) and fear of falling (basophobia). That means, all other fears are acquired over time; including alektorophobia.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons Author: Blake Bowker and Laura Rhodes]

Alektorophobia is derived from “Alektor” (the Greek term for “rooster”) and of course “phobia” which means “fear of”. Just like the name suggests, this is an irrational fear arising from the sight of Chicken. This is actually a type of Ornithophobia (which is actually the fear of birds in general).

Just like other forms of phobias, alektorophobia presents itself with symptoms, of which can create a panic attack to the sufferers. In some rare cases, even the picture of chicken could trigger this, or even the sight of the eggs, and not necessarily seeing the live chicken. Now that’s really weird.

Causes of fear of chicken

Though this particular phobia is not very common, but it has been believed that it is triggered by a particular traumatic experience in the past which involved feathered creatures (maybe the person was attacked, as a kid, by a brooding chicken. Then the memory could stick around and grow into phobia).

Also, some have this weird belief that chicken would attack them, especially those living in an area with abundance of this creature, or those that live on farms. Some evolutionary psychologists, including Dr Neil Brener (which is also a psychologist) has indicated that this could be a particular response of the brain to “fight or flight” (hyperarousal).

There are many symptoms of alektorophobia; just like some other phobias. Among them include:

• Irritability at the sight of feathered creatures

• Irrational avoidance of chicken

• Anxiety created by the sight of chicken

• Panic attack

Does this have a cure? Can it be managed? Is there any recognized therapy to manage this kind of phobia? Check out more info here .

Wednesday: Weird sea spiders breathe and mate with legs

Now I am going to bring us a really weird creature from Mother Nature. I’m talking about the pycnogonid (sea spider). Nature is truly seethed with weird and bizarre creatures.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Sylke Rohrlach From flicker]

The see spiders, though resembling the land spiders, are not related to them even remotely. The sea spiders are species of aquatic arthropods, which have very unusual body structure which you will find out soon. There are over 1,300 recognized species of sea spiders, with varying leg length that range from few centimeters to a whopping 70cm (that would be a monster-looking sea spider).

The abdomen of the sea spider is extremely very tiny that most of its organs are found in its leg (not in the abdomen); organs like; the digestive organ, genitalia, and even respiratory organ. Yes they breathe with their legs. Are you surprised? The sea spider has neither gills nor lungs, and the means of exchange of gases is through their legs; in which oxygen circulates through their leg.

And talking about mating, this is also done with the leg. The legs host the genital pores, and during mating, the male sea spider climbs on top of the female sea spider in such a way that their genital spores come together. During this process, the female would release some ova, which the male would fertilize with its sperm. The male sea spider would carry the egg about in an appendage until they hatch into baby sea spiders.

I’m sure you may want to see a video of how and what this creature looks like. Well, yeah, I got a video for you from YouTube.

There is also some info relating to this creature that you may want to know about. You can get more info here .

Thursday: Exploding head syndrome

Have you ever had the experience; which you lie down to sleep, and just as you are about to fall deep in sleep, a loud sudden noise from nowhere wakes you right up from the sleep? If you’ve ever experienced this; then I’d love to tell you that this condition is called Explosive head syndrome (EHS).

[Image Source: pixabay]

EHS, as it were, is a sleep disorder which presents as a form of auditory hallucination (imagined sounds/noise) at the point of waking up or falling into sleep. The most prevalent sounds complained by the sufferers include: gunshot, imaginative alarm clash, or even an explosion. In most cases, this is usually accompanied by a scary feeling which causes extreme perspiration and palpitation of the heart; though physical pain is not attached to this.

This condition was first mentioned by Dr Silas Weir Mitchell in the year 1876, but it wasn’t until 1988 that this condition was named “explosive head syndrome”. And since then, there have been researches into this field.

Does this have a cause? Though it is pretty unclear the root cause of this condition, some hypotheses have gone to state some predisposing factors that could trigger the EHS. These factors include:

• Emotional distress

• Weakness and fatigue

• Stress

Some have also linked this to some supernatural powers and other spiritual beliefs (but yeah, this does not cover the field of observable science).

Also, there has been speculation that this could be caused by some abnormalities in the reticular function of the brainstem (we are aware this area controls the movement of the eyes, and some motor functions that represent the transition between falling asleep and waking up).

So you see, sleeping is not as easy as it sounds after all. As some of us may lie down to sleep, others could lie down into “battle field” in their brain.

To get more info, click here.

Friday: Charging your device by moving your fingers

Technology is getting advanced as the day passes; and as we have seen, some mind-blowing innovations have greeted this era. But I’m going to present to us the device that can be charged by just moving your fingers over it. This could hold the key to wireless charging without plugging your phone, for example, into any socket.

[Image Source: Pxhere]

Converting kinetic energy to electrical energy

A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science and the University of Buffalo has created a device which replicates the effect of triboelectricity (the kind of electricity generated when a body comes in contact frictionally with another body). This is how static energy is created. For example; When you rub an ebonite rod with fur, you would create negative charges in the rod. Or when a glass rod is rubbed with silk, it produces positive charge in the rod .

There is a little experiment we used to do as kids. We would rub our ballpoint pen on our hair, and it would be seen to attract pieces of papers . We didn’t actually know we were producing static electricity.

That’s exactly how this device works. The device is incorporated with some layers of thin gold films, which contains polymethylsiloxane (which is a silicone-based polymer). Once the device is held on the hand, the movement of the fingers over the gold film would cause electrons to flow within the film (in a back-forth movement), thus creating the static energy, which is converted to electrical energy to charge the device.

This research may not make much meaning for people living in countries with steady power supply, but for a place like where I grew up, which has epileptic power supply, this device would be celebrated :D

To read more, click here.

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Ok buddies, this is the summary of some of the awesome discoveries I made for the week. And until I come your way again, keep learning; @samminator says so

Thanks for reading

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

gif by @foundation