TBH Agencia Exclusiva Colsanitas
Stories (85)
Filter by community
The shape that changed our world forever
Did you know that stop signs used to be yellow back in the 1920s even though red had already become known for stop in traffic lights the convention in science wasn't yet established and there were two major problems with red one there wasn't yet a way to make red pigment that wouldn't fade and two red is way harder to see at night you see your eye has three types of cones that detect color red green and blue cones but at night there isn't enough light to activate these cones in your retina and so your eyes rely on rods which are much better at perceiving low light and if we look at the wavelength sensitivity of rods you'll notice they actually don't even pick up red wavelengths when we see red at night it can only be picked up by cones and as a result red is the hardest color to see in low light so while a traffic light shining right is one thing a lowly lit red sign is completely different on top of this even in daylight our eyes are actually most sensitive to a yellow greenish color this is because it's right in the overlap between our red and green cone sensitivity peaking at about 550 nanometers making it a perfect option for visibility but not exactly one for consistency with red meaning stop so when did the switch to red signs happen and how did we overcome this hurdle it's actually one of the most ingenious and coolest inventions to ever come about retro reflection .
By TBH Agencia Exclusiva Colsanitasabout a year ago in Chapters
This tiny device could reforest the entire planet
this is a tiny self-propelling wooden robot made of one single material and it may just transform the face of the planet literally place it on the ground and it will slowly start to bury itself attach a seed to it and it could be used to replant forests all over the world it's a groundbreaking ingenious design that may also play a huge role in energy harvesting Soft Robotics and sustainable buildings but what exactly is it its development was initially inspired by hygromorphs structures that change shape in response to humidity like pine cones whose scales automatically close when they get wet plants often use these kinds of structures to change and modify themselves in response to the environment in fact there's something super similar to this wooden robot already found in nature the a rhodium plant it produces fruit and seeds with a hydromorphic tail-like structure that helps Propel it into the ground to germinate as the moisture in the environment changes it coils and uncoils in an attempt to drill the seed further and while this plant was a major inspiration for this research there was one major problem the success rate of erodium seeds for drilling into the ground is actually really low on some terrains it even has a zero percent success rate so to improve upon Nature's design the research team decided to create a more efficient hydromorphic structure based on our calculation and simulation results having three anchor points prevents it from flipping over or falling down so that it always face downwards at a very specific angle so that helps with the success rate a lot actually five votes in our experimental results so the coil numbers are sort of simulated with mechanical simulation so that the the trade-off is that you're having having more coils will soften the entire structure but having a little number of coils will not have enough thrust force and the actuation effect the drilling allows the seat to be placed safely underground where there's a lower chance of being eaten by an animal affected by fire or temperatures or simply washed away this entire Endeavor was a huge feat of Science and Engineering with the attempt to engineer wood that had the ability to curve extensively while also remaining strong and stiff trials were Run for the optimal number of coils angle of Entry curvature of the wood surely there's a ton of math and precision that went into designing this when the design comes in contact with moisture the wood expands but the inner layer cells do so at a faster speed than the outer layer causing the robot to coil when it later dries it contracts at different speeds again with the inner layer cells shrinking more quickly pushing the seed further into the soil we chose oak wood because it's one of those strongest wood that's also accessible we have this series of chemical processing which is almost the same process as making paper we've done experiments on the processing to make sure that the wood is pliable at the point but not as easy to break as a prolonged processing would cause then we can introduce mechanical molding to have this nutricate structure and it's the first of its kind to be made out of one single material not requiring anything synthetic the benefit of using only wood it's completely biodegradable so you're not left with a bunch of waste sitting on the forest floor Forever on top of everything it's able to carry seeds up to 75 milligrams in weight compared to typical hydromorphic seed tails in nature which typically only carry around 8 to 20 milligrams of weight opening the potential for different types of reforestation and because of the customizability of the design the team's able to tailor them to different terrains they also tested dropping the seeds from drones in the air and they were able to maintain a 90 success rate for the optimized angle not only that but the research team was able to add symbiotic species on the robot including beneficial fungi and nematodes increasing plant health and the overall survival rates in natural environments but beyond simply planting more trees the long-term implications are really fascinating while there's been a huge amount of Interest around soft robots we actually made a video covering some new liquid robots these wood robots don't quite fit that category they sort of blend both soft and hard robots into a new firm category firm robots have the advantage of being able to interact with their environment like soil more easily while also having some of the shape-shifting qualities of soft robots that are so amazing it's one type of energy into another which is water absorption outer case into a drilling motion it can be in other forms there is heat responsive material and that converts into other emotions maybe circular maybe linear this random example you can have a window covered in this sort of actuator and once it's raining the you can have some scales that opening and closing according to the humidity outside the designs passive once it's made we just rely on natural resources it's an amazing example of bio-inspired engineering looking to solve problems with a Little Help from nature
By TBH Agencia Exclusiva Colsanitasabout a year ago in Futurism
What Happens When You Quit Steroids?
three million people currently use steroids to build muscle mass in the U.S alone and one survey found that 30 percent of gym users were currently taking steroids taking rides to get gains in the gym is clearly very popular but what happens to your brain body skin and testicles when you decide to quit steroids after 24 hours of quitting steroids you will feel extremely tired and fatigued because of how the steroids have messed with your hormone systems specifically your gonadotropin releasing hormone GnRH is released from the hypothalamus and through a series of chemical Pathways stimulates her testes to produce testosterone and maintain size steroids block the release of GnRH this is why steroids can shrink your testicles and why now with a lack of steroid consumption your body is lacking testosterone production on its own the steroids that you were consuming were mimicking the testosterone so now without the steroids you have lower testosterone this is known as hypogonadism and you start to lose energy at 48 Hours of quitting you are extremely fatigued because of how low testosterone now affects the red blood cells in your body your body relies on red blood cells to transfer oxygen as a source of energy throughout your body testosterone binds to cells in the kidney to stimulate the release of erythropoietin epo which promotes red blood cell production with the lack of testosterone from quitting steroids your body has less red blood cell production which means less oxygen and less energy for cells you might remember the discussion with Lance Armstrong and how he used EPO to increase his red blood cell count to win the Tour de France here's a clip of him admitting it to Queen Oprah did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance yes yes or no was one of those bad substances EPO yes Live Strong baby especially if you're on EPO so again at 48 hours you have a lower EPO less testosterone and less energy from quitting steroids at 72 hours your sleep is now affected by the low testosterone the exact mechanism that testosterone affects sleep is not known but there have been plenty of research showing that poor sleep can reduce testosterone levels and vice versa one study showed that for every hour of sleep loss there was a testosterone drop even people with obstructive sleep apnea which affects their quality of sleep have been shown to have lower testosterone levels so when testosterone levels are low this makes it harder for you to get a good night's sleep not get a good night's sleep make sure testosterone levels lower so you might notice that quitting steroids has affected your ability to sleep after a week of quitting you will feel muscle aches and joint pain because testosterone usually promotes the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines from your immune cells this protects against inflammation now since the steroids affected your hormone system and you have lower testosterone the inflammation can accumulate in muscles and joints this is also around the time you may see that muscles are reducing in size because testosterone is less present to help with the maintenance of muscle so it is after a week that the gains start to noticeably go away at one month you may notice erectile dysfunction again since the steroids decrease natural GnRH production this by proxy decreases the follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone which help chemically message the testes to produce testosterone the lack of testosterone is now affecting these hormones to the point that it may be hard to maintain and get a boner is that the scientific term I don't know erection moving on after two months the acne that has been building up all over your face and body will finally start to disappear testosterone stimulates the growth of sebaceous glands in your skin which produce acne the low testosterone would reduce the acne's presence after three months of stopping steroids depressive symptoms and mood changes may get worse without testosterone replacement therapy some Studies have shown a higher suicide side rate and those that have previously used steroids and withdrawal can make suicidal ideation worse this has actually been shown to be the main reason why people start to use steroids again it's not to get their muscles back it's to deal with the depression and anxiety that they are now feeling at seven months you might notice that things are looking up as your boners erectile dysfunction begins to improve because the testes starts to produce testosterone on its own seven months baby and the testes are back they never left they're just uh getting back to creating testosterone on their own you know what I mean I mean they did shrink does that mean they left existential question the quality of your sperm now starts to improve again because the follicle stimulating hormone and the luteinizing hormone are again being able to message to your testes to create sperm in a more significant way but it has been seen that erectile dysfunction can take up to a year to improve but for many people it starts at seven months so just keep an eye on your boners okay again moving on after a year is when you start to see your testes begin to grow again after shrinking one study showed that after 15 months the testes size in former steroid users was 5.2 milliliters larger than current steroid users but the former users still had testes 4.9 milliliters smaller than non-steroid users which means it could take well over a year for your testes to get back to normal size clearly steroids have a negative effect on your body this video is important to understand what happens when you finally decide to stop using them because say you're sick of the acne or the tiny balls but it also explains why stopping steroids immediately could create many issues it doesn't really give your body the chance to start creating testosterone again on its own there may be ways to slowly reduce your steroid use in order to not create such a strain on your body again you need to talk to a doctor about this or you just never start taking steroids in the first place and you don't have to worry about this as much or this trend is just going to continue to grow because one recent survey found that 70 of steroid users were aware of the negative impacts .
By TBH Agencia Exclusiva Colsanitasabout a year ago in Chapters
