What I learnt For The Week 16: Wearable Electric Skateboard, Plastic-Eating Wax Worm, Philophobia, Green-Blooded Skink, Sleeping-Beauty Syndrome

Hello Buddies! Welcome to another episode in the series of "What I learnt for the week", and thanks to @mobbs for the continued privileges to be a partaker.

Over the period of last week (30th April - 4th May), I made some amazing discoveries, of which I would select some random 5 to represent the lessons learnt for each day of the week.

Okay buddies, let's go straight to the lessons learnt for the week, as this episode promises to be educative and exciting.

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Monday: Wearable Electric Skateboard (MovPak)

Just like me usual custom has been; and without exception to this episode; I normally begin with lessons on emerging technology on "robotics and machines".

Sometime ago, I talked about the self-parking slippers, and someone made a very futuristic comment (not on the post, but personally) "what if the slippers can be designed in such a way that, once you wear them, they will drive you across the street?" Out of curiosity, I had to make some research, and boom!! I found something; not slippers; but a "MovPak". This is a wearable backpack that you can transform into an electric wirelessly-controlled skateboard in seconds.

Have you ever been so much in a hurry; to catch a bus maybe; that the only option left for you is to run? Well, technology has found a solution for you. Welcome to the era of wearable mechatronics.

Dynamics of MovPak

First of all, it is worthy to note that the MovPak has a top speed of 10miles/hr (16.1km/hr). How does this work? The MovPak; which looks like a real backpack; is incorporated with a tail region which hosts an electric skateboard, which is operated by electric motor and rechargeable batteries.

Also incorporated with the backpack is a release button that exteriorizes the skateboard. But fascinating enough, the surface of the board has pressure sensors that detect when the feet have been fixed on it; and with the help of a remote control, the speed and direction can be controlled. Now what can't technology do?

Pheww!! Too much talk. Here, I found a video for you to show you how the MovPak works and how it looks like.

I know some would be saying that this backpack would be very heavy to carry about because of its functionalities. Well, I'm glad to disappoint you; this backpack is made with ultra-light materials and weighs just about 7kg.

Oh yes! The MovPak has compartments which you can use to put in your personal belongings. Not only that, it also comes with a GPS tracker, charging port for your mobile devices, and a bluetooth 2.0 adapter. Now you see, technology has come to simplify the course of living of humankind. You may say it's making us to live a sedentary lifestyle, but that's your opinion anyway. In my opinion, technology is here to assist humankind.

To know more about the functionalities of the MovPak, click here.

Tuesday: Plastic-Eating Wax Worm

The fight against plastic pollution has been age-long. This is because, the threat of plastic pollution has proven to have some degenerative effect on our Mother Earth. It might interest you to know that a particular publication has indicated that by the year 2021; judging from the current usage of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastics; about 500billion PET would be used yearly (I.e at the average of 1.2million PET/minute).

And no doubt, these PET plastics can take up to a whopping 500years to fully degrade, so calculate the kind of pollution that would result from this. But in pursuit of solutions, an idea was raised, and that is to employ a specie of wax worms that feast on plastics to do the job.

[Image Source: Pixabay. CC0 Licensed]

The caterpillar of a particular specie of wax moth (Galleria mellonella) has been proven to break down plastics. This discovery was made accidentally by Federica bertocchini (from the institute of Biomedics and Biotechnology; Spain), who is actually a bee keeper. In the bid to keep off some nasty worms from feasting on his honeycomb, he had to put them in plastic bags, only to find out that the worms feasted on the plastic bags instead. Now, this weird appetite of the wax worm for plastic can find practical application in the controlling of plastic pollution.

And awesomely enough; as against other options of biological degradation of plastics; the wax worms get the job done faster. This is due to the action of the digestive enzyme secreted by the worms on the plastics. However, reservations have been raised in the area of controlling these worms. But as researches keep advancing, maybe these enzymes responsible for the degradation can be isolated and replicated industrially. So instead of using the actual worms, the enzymes can be employed.

Wanna know more about the degradation of plastic by wax worms, click here.

Wednesday: Philophobia (Fear of Love)

Before I proceed, let me remind us of this line from Michael Jackson's song:

Love is Magical. - M. Jackson

Also, here's another phrase by one of Nigerian's most celebrated musical artists; D-Banj:

Don't get it twisted, love is a beautiful thing.- D-Banj

Okay having seen these, do you know that there are some people with an irrational, weird, and unconditional fear of love? This type of fear is called "Philophobia".

[Image Source: Pixabay. CC0 Licensed]

The term is derived from "filos" (Greek term associated with love), and of course "phobia" which means "fear of". The sufferers of this condition; or rather; people who are philophobic are scared of becoming romantically attracted to someone. And weird enough, this kind of phobia is prevalent in this our contemporary era, and majority of the sufferers are women and fewer in males (of course, you can figure out the reason for this).

Causes of Philophobia

The greater percentage of the cause of this phobia is linked to past experience. For example; a lady who may have had some nasty experience in the hands of her ex; it would not be unnatural for her to pick up this phobia after break up.

Also, for people that suffered from some form of abusive relationships in the past or have been in an environment where "love" is abused. For example; the case of a father physically abusing the mother in front of the kids, believe me, the memory of this could stick with the kids and they could grow up with it, which can eventually lead to philophobia. And when that happens, they would be seeing the dark side of their dad in every man that approaches them for relationship.

Symptoms of Philophobia

The early symptom of this phobia can be manifested in someone feeling uneasy around the opposite sexes, especially the ones that tend to profess affection for him/her. And this feeling can lead to irrational behavioural display; both in actions and speech; that would ultimately scare of the individual.

In some severe and extreme cases, panic attack can result from being over-anxious of the outcome of the relationship (that's if the person decides to force himself/herself to further the relationship).

Does this have a cure? To know more, click here.

Thursday: Green-Blooded Skink

In the previous episode we looked at the blue-blooded Antarctic Octopus, and we also saw the colourless-blood Ocellated Icefish. But clearly, these are not the only creatures with non-red blood. Here, we're going to be looking at another sexy creature; the Green Skink (Prasinohaema virens).

[Image Source: Pxhere. CC0 Licensed]

In contrast to the Antarctic Octopus that uses hemocyanin (which is a copper-rich blue pigment) as an oxygen transportation medium in the blood in lieu of hemoglobin; and also in contrast to the Ocellated Icefish which doesn't require either of the hemocyanin or hemoglobin; the Skink actually does have hemoglobin as an oxygen transportation medium in the blood.

Someone could ask "if this creature has hemoglobin, why is the blood green and not red?" Okay, here's the thing: Normally, in the red-blooded creatures, the liver degrades the hemoglobin into "heme" and "globin". This process is initiated by the red blood cell being broken down in a process known as hemolysis.

Now, the heme is degraded into bilirubin and also into a green-pigmented biliverdin; which is normally removed from the blood. But as it were; the skink retains this green-pigmented biliverdin without being relatively affected by it. Now, a greater retention of this pigment is what has been seen to mutilate the colour of the blood of the skink and has caused it to be green.

Now you see, blood is not necessarily a red-coloured fluid in the body. You're now aware that it can come in diverse colours.

To know more about skink, click here.

Friday: Sleeping-Beauty Syndrome

Sleep is good right? No doubt about this; but I won't have you ignorant of the fact that; too much of everything may not be particularly good. Have you thought about a medical condition that causes someone to sleep for days straight (with; maybe; waking up intermittently just to eat and use the restroom)? Now this might sound like some bunch of fiction, but it is an actual condition and it is called Sleeping-Beauty Syndrome (also known as Kleine-Levin Syndrome).

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain licensed]

This condition is relatively rare and the root cause is yet to be understood in details, but it has been believed that it can be caused by a defect in the thalamus which regulates sleep; among others. It has not been pin-pointed if this condition is congenital or hereditary.

Even though this condition has a propensity to affect people at any age, it particularly strikes the adolescent age more. And this can also interfere with the normal function of the person and can cause excessive mood swing and increased sexuality. But apart from these, this condition doesn't pose much threat to life, and some people can just out-grow it with time.

Wanna know more about sleeping-beauty syndrome, click here.

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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.

Thanks for reading

References for further reading:

• cnet.com/MovPak

• Futurism/wax-worm

• Nationalgeographic/wax-worms

• Fearof/Philophobia

• philophobia.org

• Nationalgeographic/green-skink

• wikipedia/Prasinohaema-virens

• Institute of neurological disorder

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

gif by @foundation