Thursday Things: Buzzing Menace Edition
7 May 2020. Vol 2 No 19. By Dan McGirt. #39
Welcome to Thursday Things! This week we’ve got the latest menaces cooked up by nature and scientists, the fastest workout ever, and more!
“Did you hear about the murder hornets? Scary stuff, man! I can’t BEElieve it.” Photo by Kai Wenzel on Unsplash
Giant Asian Murder Hornets! They’re scary and they have turned up in Washington state to devour our precious honey bees! And possibly us! Or so the media would have us believe. Is it time to hit the panic button for the hornet apocalypse? Our friends at Smithsonian Magazine say No, Americans Do Not Need to Panic About ‘Murder Hornets’:
“You shouldn’t worry about it,” says Floyd Shockley, the entomology collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “More people die of honey bee stings in the U.S. than die annually, globally, from these hornets. About 60 to 80 people die from [allergic] reactions to honey bee stings [in the U.S.]; only about 40 people die per year, in Asia, mostly in Japan, from reactions to the [giant hornet] stings.”
That said, the sting of the Asian giant hornet is far more painful and toxic than that of a honey bee. Researchers have likened the sensation to having a hot nail driven into one’s flesh. However, Shockley says giant hornets are only dangerous if provoked and tend to keep to themselves unless threatened.
Well, that’s a relief! Don’t bother the hornets and they won’t bother you. I, for one, am willing to accept the murder hornets’ generous offer.
As for the bees — well, maybe our American bees should take some lessons from their cousins in Japan on how to deal with murder hornets:
Scientists Grew Tiny Human Brains and Hooked Them up to Robots. In case you’re wondering what’s next after the murder hornets: “Let’s make mini-brains, hook them up to spider robots, and shoot them into space!” Where are they getting research ideas from? Lex Luthor?
On the International Space Station, clusters of nerve cells called mini-brains are developing in ways that scientists didn’t previously think was possible.
The organoids were grown from stem cells at the University of California, San Diego lab of biologist Alysson Muotri, before being packed into a box and shipped to space, where Muotri told The New York Times they’re likely “replicating like crazy.” Now, his team has found that the organoids are giving off brain waves — complex patterns of neural activity — similar to those of premature babies. It’s a bizarre finding that could force scientists to revisit the limitations of lab-grown mini-organs and the ethical issues surrounding them.
Muotri hooked the mini-brains up to spider-shaped robots to read their neural activity, according to the NYT. The findings could be a sign that scientists are approaching the capability to generate at least partially-conscious life in the lab — a development that’s long been little more than a speculative horror story in the field.
This seems like a bad idea for many, many reasons. The ethical concerns for one. That and the menace of brain-powered spider robots from space. Thanks, scientists!
Did you ever wonder where the phrase “legging it” originated? Neither did I. But now I know. Back in the early days of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, boats full of coal or whatnot were towed along canals by horses. But at certain points there were tunnels to pass through that had no path for the horses. That’s where the leggers came in:
Legging is the act of moving a narrowboat through a canal tunnel, while lying on your back either atop the boat or—as was most common—on a plank jutting out across its bow at both sides, and walking along the tunnel’s roof or walls. It usually requires two people, one on either side of the boat and each holding onto the plank for stability, keeping their legs at a 45-degree angle as they “leg it” with equal pressure through tunnels that could stretch over three miles long (at 3.24 miles, it would take leggers approximately 1 hour, 20 minutes to leg through Standedge Tunnel with an empty boat, and three hours with a full load). It was an actual profession during the Industrial Revolution. While the legging was being done, a tunnel keeper or the boat owner would unhook the boat’s pull horses and lead them up and over the hillside to the tunnel’s far end, reconnecting them when the process was complete.
A fascinating bit of history. Click through to the article to see pictures if the description above isn’t quite letting you wrap your mind around what legging entailed. It was hard, dangerous work, but I bet those guys had monster calf muscles. I expect legging workouts will be the trendy new thing in gyms — if gyms are ever a thing again!
The surprising health benefits of a 4-second workout. I’m a fan of the One-Minute Workout, but that takes a whole sixty seconds. Four second workout? That’s what I’m talking about!
People who sat for eight hours but interrupted their inactivity with four seconds of “all-out” sprints on a special stationary bike every hour — 160 seconds of total exercise per day — burned more fat and had lower levels of triglycerides the next day compared to people who kept sitting.
Awesome! But what if I don’t have a special stationary bike?
Taking short activity breaks from sitting, even if it’s just for one minute, can provide health benefits if done regularly, said Keith Diaz, an assistant professor of behavioral medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who studies the health dangers of too much sitting.
Diaz, who was not involved in this study, called such brief breaks "exercise snacks." Muscles are important for controlling blood sugar and triglyceride levels, so when people don't move, this process doesn’t work as effectively. Really intense, all-out exercise that uses almost all of your muscle fibers will counteract this, he said, noting it was particularly striking how brief the workout was in this experiment.
The key point is get up and move a few times a day and do some bursts of intense exercise. The article suggests jumping jacks, sprinting up a hill, or taking your chances running up stairs. Or you could try powering a cargo boat through a tunnel with your legs. Here is the original research at Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: ‘Hourly 4-s Sprints Prevent Impairment of Postprandial Fat Metabolism from Inactivity’
Thank you for reading Thursday Things! We’ll be back next week with more thrills, chills, spills, and ills. See you then!