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Trunk Flex
Did you know elephants can be left or right trunked? Researchers learned more about how wrinkles influence trunk-dominance.
Trunk wrinkles act like joints
Formed during gestation
Repeated use reinforces wrinkles on dominant side
Asian elephants have extra wrinkles compared to their African cousins to make up for 1 vs. 2 finger-like appendages. Mimicking nature’s tricks for trunks could improve future soft robotics development. Going forward, my t-shirts are “flexible”.
Quick! (vote)Which is your dominant trunk side? |
Check out last week’s results in “Unnatural Selection” below
Sewing Electricity
Surgical stitches now generate electricity. A new version of sutures developed in China speeds up healing with voltage.
Natural movement stretches stitches + generates charges
Charges accelerate tissue repair and minimize bacterial infection
Electrical sutures = ~35% improved healing in 10 day rat tests
The charged stitching is made from bioabsorbable materials, eliminating the need for surgical removal. Future tests will determine how versatile electric healing will be for humans. Until then we can rub our socks on the carpet for blister repair.
Farmer Ant
Ants may be the oldest farmers on Earth. Fungi thrived after the Cretaceous mass extinction, and ants capitalized with agriculture.
Most ant species work with one specific fungus strain
Leafcutter ants feed leaves to fungi
Then harvest fungal growths for food
Other ants have similarly specialized farming techniques that co-evolved with fungal species. Researchers are building out gene libraries in hopes of defining exactly which genetic traits correspond between farmer and crop. Unbeleafable.
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Unnatural Selection
Last week: “If you were a fruit fly, which would you prefer?”
Ok so whose kitchen can we use to test this?
Make sure you vote up top for next week’s “Unnatural Selection”!
st3v on site
Trunk Tech
In the grand-scale of time, st3v’s technically correct. What’s a few hundred thousand years between pals anyway?
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