What I learnt this week 2: Flies disease carrying potential may be greater than we thought, AI controlled brain implant, Drinking atleast four cups of coffee a day reduces your risk of death, Toyota unveils their third generation humanoid robot...
Yay! We back again for the second episode of what I learned this week. This is a wonderful week as well, just different from the last in that my lessons this week are outside Steemit and might not be familiar to you. What am I saying? 🤷 You'll get to understand all by the time you finish reading the post. Like we know already, my Monday to Friday lessons are up next. Stay tuned. 😜 My apologies for dropping this late, it should have been yesterday but I got busy beyond my control.
Monday: Flies disease carrying potential might be greater than we thought.
Flies generally are regarded as harmless creatures. We are mostly conscious of the fact that they can contaminate our food but they really do beyond that. Who would have ever thought that flies have the ability to cause bacterial infections? Well, they can. A research was made on the microbiomes of 116 house flies and blowflies in at least 3 different continents and the results gathered showed that they carried numerous species of bacteria of which many are harmful to humans.
The above picture is a blowfly and that picture was gotten from a scan by an electron microscope. The scan showed that bacterial cells and particles are attached it. It is believed that this image might lead to the breakthrough research on the mechanism of pathogen transmission in the flies. We all know flies to be very active in the environments as they move about and perch for a good number of times and this can amount to high pathogen transmission potential in them.
According to the research conducted by Stephan Schuster, the director of research at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, it was discovered that the legs and wings of flies have high bacterial content. This result was gotten after the investigation of the various body parts of flies. In addition, he mentioned that the legs of the flies are the greatest propagator as they help spread bacteria when moving from one place to another. He also said the "legs and wings of the flies have the highest microbial diversity, and that flies are being used airborne shuttles by bacteria".
Tuesday: Artificial Intelligence Controlled brain implant for mental disorders.
The deep brain stimulation technology has proven to be ineffective in time past as they failed to improve or help depression and similar mental conditions. Recently, two groups of researchers have been able to work on a new approach to the deep brain stimulation. The two groups developed a closed loop implant, they had to search for an epileptic person who would volunteer to have electrodes implanted in his brain to help track seizures. The researchers' work focused more on the general behaviors found in several mental conditions rather than a single medical condition.
In a societal meeting for Neuroscientists that held in Washington, DC, Engr. Omid Sani of the Southern California University, Los Angeles demonstrated the map of how our mood is encoded in our brain over a period of time. This is usually obtained by deploying an algorithm to gather information about an individual's changing moods based on records of neural activity.
One major reason for the success of the deep brain stimulation is the delivery of a mild electric shock in closed loop implant based on physiological signals, unlike the previous deep brain stimulation techniques that use the doctor's judgment. There are two potential problems this technique might have as stated by Wayne Goodman, a psychiatrist at Baylor's College of Medicine Houston, Texas is a potential breach of one's privacy and overcorrection of the emotions.
Wednesday: Drinking at least four cups of coffee a day reduces your risk of death.
A huge chunk of the information we get from friends and relatives are usually wrong. Having been told that coffee is dangerous when taken too much, I resorted to drinking tea instead not knowing it was a big lie. A very new research done at the University of Edinburgh made it known that 3-4 cups of coffee per day help ease up on stress unlike what we've been hearing in a while.
This research is on the black coffee and it stated that coffee really does more good to the health than to harm it, so you shouldn't even limit the amount of coffee you take per day. By drinking several cups of coffee per day, you are guaranteed a lower risk of dementia, heart disease, diabetes, liver problems and some types of cancer. These are huge benefits gotten from a cheap source. This research didn't rule out possible bad effects, it only made known that some coffee may counteract these benefits as a result of the additives. They didn't forget to mention that it might be linked to a small increased risk of bone fracture in women which is a reason intake must be reduced during pregnancy.
This study was brought to life after the analysis of the results of more than 200 studies of the health effects(good or bad) of drinking coffee. This most interesting thing is that although this result is very convincing but not that conclusive, scientists are now considering the prescription of coffee as medicine in the nearest future. The only thing left out is that we need to be sure through clinical trials that the coffee really offer the above benefits and not the other way round.
Thursday: Toyota Unveils Their Third Generation Humanoid Robot
The Toyota Motor Corporation is an automobile company. They introduced the hybrid-electric car Prius in 1997 and they were the first to produce the fuel cell sedan, Mirai en masse in 2014. The Toyota Robot Division has now made a robot that uses advanced technology to meet the mobility needs of the people although the third generation humanoid robot making inspiration came from the previous instrument playing robot they made.
It's surprising how this robot explores new technologies that help it maintain a good physical relationship between it and its environment. You might not know what this robot is used for, but I can tell you, it's superb. In the image above, you see a robot and a man sitting on what is called the master maneuvering system. This system sends signals to the robot. As shown above, a man is sitting in the system, whatever he does is sent to the robot and the robot does same. What does this mean? It simply means I could be at home and control the robot to my neighbor or farther. I know the next thing to think of is if it wouldn't get lost on the way. But no, there is a head-mounted display that allows whoever is controlling it to see things from the robot's perspective. This is really nice. Isn't it?
You might really not believe this, check the video below to clear your doubt.
Indeed, this is one groundbreaking robotic innovation. The torque servo module was used to achieve some characteristics of the robot. Characteristics which include whole body balance, flexible and moveable joints, whole body coordination, strength and balance in case it collides with something. The robot was featured at the just concluded International Robot Exhibition 2017 that was held at Tokyo from November,29 through to December, 2nd.
You can read More
Friday: Asthma in infant boys may be reversible
In a just-concluded research done by the University of Alberta, it was shown that asthma transferred to baby boys from their mother at birth is not only related to genetics. Note that I said baby boys because the probability of transfer to a baby girl is limited. This problem is preventable according to this research.
In an interview, the head of this research, Anita Kozyrskyj, a microbiome epidemiologist, said that their research result possibly holds the prevention approach obtainable by the modification of the microbiomes in the gut of infants to at least change or eliminate this risk. She also mentioned that it would be too early to start probiotic treatments for the infants.
The caucasian male fetus usually have a lower birth weight as a result of their response to maternal asthma. This shows that a few differences usually sex-based go on in the uterus of the mothers with asthma.
GIF made by @foundation
Proud Member of @steemstem
Proud Member of @genesis-project
Proud Member of air-clinic
Thank you for your time!!
That little boy, @pearlumie.
Join air-clinic's discord server. Medical practitioners needed. Anybody from the field of medical science is free to join.
Contact @nairadaddy for more info.
Am so glad I saw this post. All you said about drinking coffee and living healthier and longer is correct. I made a post on that sometime.
Again the one on robots made by toyota is informative and a wow post.I like them
Thank you for the nice words and thanks for dropping by.....