Hello buddies! Welcome again to another episode in the series of "What I Learnt For The Week", and this episode promises to be educative and exciting.
Over the period of last week (4th-9th 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: Drone Pollination
Just like my usual custom is; and without exception to this episode; I normally begin an episode with lessons on emerging technology.
We may have all heard about the term pollination in plants. Okay, for the uninitiated:
This is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma. Source.
This pollination is what is instrumental to plant's fertilization and reproduction. Some agents of pollination are animals, of which bees form major part of it (yeah; you remember bees when you talk about honey, but do you know they are major agents of pollination?). But a shocking revelation has been made by this publication, which has indicated that the population of bees has been on the decrease. And you know what that means? A decline in the population of a major agent of pollination would lead to reduced production of some types of plants, which would reduce the overall food supply. This decline is caused majorly by the use of toxic chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, etc. Now, what is the solution to this? Well, technology has provided one, and it is called the Drone Pollinator (Droney Appleseed).
Dynamics of the drone pollinator
The drone pollinator is a little drone modeled after the biological bees specifically for pollination. How da heck can a machine attract pollen grains? Okay, here’s the thing; the major part of the drone is covered in animal hair to imitate the body of the biological bees, and these hairs are also lined with a special kind of gel. Once the droney bees brush over the anther of the flower of a plant, they would attract the pollen grains, then they can hover over the farmland and drop the pollen grains.
Okay, let me show you a video I got from YouTube on how the drone pollinator looks like (Just focus on 0-35seconds of the video and skip the rest).
For the major part of it, the activities of the drone are powered from a remote server that would also trigger their deployment. But plans are underway to make them run autonomously on AI. No doubt, this would ease up the tension laid on the declining population of the biological bees. Maybe bees should just focus on producing the damn honey and allow the droney to take the stage, lol.
How effective is this droney? Okay; I'll use this YouTube video as an instructional material. You would observe that the droney appleseed was seen to be deployed into an apple orchard, and as they hover over the farmland, they were releasing pollen grains just like the biological bees. Here's the video.
With these drones, pollination can be managed effectively and you can even choose the particular pollen grains you want to use for the pollination. What can't technology do?
To know more about the drone pollinator (droney appleseed), click here.
Tuesday: Vehophobia (Fear of driving
Cars are; no doubt; what we use every now and then (at least for people living in the city). For example, where you work could be quite distant from where you live, so you would need to transport yourself to work. As a matter of precision, in this era, owning a car is no longer considered as a luxury, but a necessity. But do you know that there are people who are scared of driving? Yes! This type of fear exists, and it is called "Vehophobia"
[Image Source: Pxhere. CC0 Licensed]
The name is quite explanatory; "Veho" (relating to vehicle), and "phobia" which means "fear of". The sufferers of this condition have hard times anytime they are behind the wheels. But in some cases, even the thought of driving could trigger uneasiness and unnatural behavioural display.
Causes of Vehophobia
One of the major causes of this phobia is the relation of past experiences. From my own experience: I started driving very early, even before I got my first drivers licence (yeah; in this part of the world, you can drive without a licence, just try not to get caught, lol). But all through those periods, I drove the automatic gear system cars. One day, my friend called me to take her car to get something for her. Oh damn! it was a manual gear car, and not wanting to tell her "no", I dragged myself into the car. I managed to put the gear in 1, and I took off; I was naively firing on just the first gear without changing gears. Before I knew wassup, the unexpected happened; I scattered the timing belt and blew up the crankshaft, with some other nasty damages. After that experience, I was scared as shit to get behind the wheels of any car, even the automatic gear cars.
Well, it took me some time to get back to driving, and I had to start afresh to learn how to drive, but I had to use the manual gear to learn (well, that has been a long time though). But the point is; bad experiences with cars can trigger this fear. Also, talk about people that may have experienced some form of autocrash, it wouldn't be unnatural for them to pick up this phobia. And you know, phobias can actually grow.
Also, there are some places where you would drive; you would pick up this phobia. Like the place where I grew up, the roads are so undulated, and to worsen matters, you could be stuck in traffic with some reckless drivers brushing against your car just to go pass the traffic. All these can lead to discouragement in driving, and make one to develop the fear of driving.
Symptoms of Vehophobia
The symptoms manifest majorly when the sufferer is behind the wheel, but in some extreme cases, just the thought of driving can trigger the symptoms, and they include:
- Unnatural sweating
- Palpitation and increased heart rate
- Panic attack
- Gross avoidance of driving
Wanna know more about vehophobia, click here.
Wednesday: 5D Glass Disc Storage
In the past, we have looked at some holy grails of data storage. We saw the DNA storage, holographic storage, and even the helium drive, but another type of storage device has arisen with some unique properties which you would find out latter, and this storage device is the "Five dimensional glass disc storage".
[Image Source: Screenshot from YouTube Video. 9seconds from starting. Author: N2K]
Some of the storage devices we know of are limited by time. For example; hard drives can deteriorate with time, and helium drives can lose data with exposure to high temperature, but a solution has been found. A team of researchers from the University of Southampton have created a kind of 5D glass which has been incorporated with nanosegments, these segments or spaces are filled with microdots which actually host the data.
And most importantly, this glass has a very unique ability of preserving data through time. It can hold; on average; somewhat of 360TB of data for a whopping 13.8billion years (according to the publication by Southampton University). Wait! 13.8billion years? What!! Isn't that older than the age of the earth? That means, if a prototype was created when the earth was formed, it would still be usable today.
Also, data can be preserved in this glass at high temperatures of above 190 degrees Celsius, but the researchers have theorized that they can go as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius. Isn't that amazing?
In contrast to the normal optical discs we are familiar with; that store up data externally on the surface, and are susceptible to scratches, erosion, and all what not; the 5D glass stores data internally in the microdots. This is what gives them their durability, and you know, glass is tougher than disc and data are embedded right into them.
Some may ask; is this commercially available yet? Well, the price is currently on the high side because of the process involved in writing the data onto the glasses using a special laser beam, but with time a cheaper alternative would be sought, and the price would be affordable by the average income earners. Maybe soon, we could have media players that would play 5D glass disc, just like the VCD and DVD discs.
Wanna know more about the 5D glass storage, click here.
Thursday: Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED)
Hey You!! Bring That Book!! I Mean The Paper!!! Are You Nuts!! You're Such An Arse!! Get Lost You Idiot!!!... Sorry guys, I wasn't referring to you at all, but this is an imaginary display of Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). Now what is this disorder all about? This is the sudden outburst of aggression, anger, insults, and some forms of violent behavioral displays.
[Image Source: Pixabay. CC0 Licensed]
You may have encountered people with this condition, well I have. One of my friends would explode and boil over insignificant issues, and before I know wassup, rains of abuses would follow. In most cases of this, the behavioural display is episodic and often short-lived, and would resurface again. This outburst could be; most times; preceded by mood swings. Now I'm telling you from what I've experienced from my friend. How would you explain someone getting angry for just no cause, or maybe over things that would normally not pique anger? But I came to observe one thing; before the outburst, the mood would get altered, and I would know something nasty is cooking, so I'll keep my eyes open, lol.
Also, in some cases of IED, it could result into physical assault. Imagine what would happen when you get into an argument with someone suffering from this; you could end up with a black eye, lol. But, observably, they feel relieved after the rage, and some even regret the wrongs they've done. But, later, another episode of outburst would arise, just like the episodes of "what I learnt for the week".
Causes of IED
Though scientists have had some pretty hard times pin-pointing the causes of this disorder, so many factors can be remotely queried for this. For example; the environment where you grow up or live in can affect you greatly. Someone that grew up in an abusive environment, maybe in families where the father would shout at the mother repeatedly, or maybe the mother would physically abuse the nanny, it wouldn't be unnatural to pick up and exhibit this disorder.
Also, the biological makeup could play a contributory role in this, and scientists have indicated that some genetic factors could influence the behaviour of people, which can also be inherited by subsequent generations.
Does this have a cure? wanna know more, click here.
Friday: Fairy Rings
I stumbled on a weird phenomenon while surfing the web, and I thought I should share it with you guys. Have you ever heard or seen an arc or a near-circle formed by mushrooms and don't know what they are called? Well, these are fairly rings or fairy circles.
Some folklores and myths have so much misrepresented this phenomenon to the average mind. Some have also said that the point represents a connection between some parallel universes. Who believes such stories? Well, some actually do. But there's a scientific explanation to this. But before that, here's what the fairy rings look like (from YouTube)
Though scientists have been theorizing some possible causes of this phenomenon, here's one of the most potent explanations. We all know that mushroom is a fungus, and the major part of it is the mycelium (which is also the vegetative part). And the most part of it is underground. Now, this would form a network known as Shiro. This mushroom, through the shiro, would release enzymes and nutrients underground; thus, leading to the growth of grasses surrounding the area. But as the mushrooms grow themselves, they would use up all these nutrients, thus leading to the death of these grasses and vegetation surrounding them, and it would appear like a mass of dead rings.
Okay! The truth is; there are more explanations to the fairy rings than is just seen peripherally. Maybe I'll welcome our own bizarre natural phenomenalist 
I'm sure I've piqued your interest, for more info, click here.
Okay buddies, this is the summary of the amazing discoveries I made for the week. And until I come your way again, don't stop learning. 
Thanks for reading
References for further reading
- Futurism/drones-pollinator
- Fearof.net/vehophobia
- Overcomefear.net/vehophobia
- Theverge/5d-glass-storage
- Eternal-data-storage
- psychologytoday.com/intermittent-explosive-disorder
- Myoclinic.org/IED
- Mushroom-appreciation.com/fairy-rings
