Robots are Taking Over!

By Ben Moon, Director of Space and Technology

Everyone knows (or should know) that robots will one day become autonomous, overpower man, and take over the world. We’ve seen it in movies like The Matrix, The Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Eagle Eye, and I, Robot. With each real-world advancement and discovery in robotics and artificial intelligence, we edge ever closer to this fate.

Okay, maybe that’s a little science fictiony, but our metallic companions are becoming smarter, more lifelike and creepier every day.

Take for example, Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/ . Robonaut is a humanoid robot designed by the Robot Systems Technology Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center in a collaborative effort with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). This centaur-like robot has a Bobba Fett mask-wearing torso of a man attached to a 4-wheeler and has ground breaking dexterous hands which have been developed over the past two decades. *Author’s note: Luke Skywalker hand eminent.* Watch the videos on the site and you’ll understand why I think it’s creepy.

DARPA has other creepy robotic collaborative efforts with robotics company Boston Dynamics (http://www.bostondynamics.com/). This company has developed several robots, one of which is a pack mule robot for the military named “Big Dog.” This thing will throw your brain through a loop as its movements and balancing ability look much too lifelike. Trust me when I say that Big Dog can walk on ice better than you can. Scary. There are many videos of Boston Dynamics’ robots on YouTube if you’re interested.

While these robots are pretty harmless on their own, there are robots in the battlefield that can pack a punch when needed. Foster-Miller’s SWORDS and TALON are remote controlled robots on tank treads and are armed with shotguns, machine guns and explosive charges which you can see in action at http://www.foster-miller.com/lemming.htm . The MQ-1 Predators are remote controlled, unmanned aircraft systems that have been taking out targets with laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles in Iraq and Afghanistan for years now. Check the stats here: http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=122 and a video of Discovery Channel’s Future Weapons special on the Predator: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/futureweapons-predator.html .

Other weird robots include Japan’s “Fashion Model” humanoid robot HRP-4C that walks, talks, recognizes speech and looks like a human (in silver Storm Trooper attire); the FESTO Airjelly http://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/5890.htm ; water-walking robots http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/ ; and a host of other robots inspired by animals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8Yw19bn7Q.
But I suppose we’re okay as long as there isn’t a company called Cyberdyne working in the field of cybernetics….oh wait… http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html or a satellite’s linked to Skynet….oh…wait again… http://www.loralskynet.com/template.asp?p=co_overview&m=m_co&sm=

Are we tempting fate here?

Contributor Profile:

Ben Moon is the Manager of Space and Technology at McWane. He is a total geek and loves space, shiny things, technology, gadgets, video games, sci-fi and zombies. He is married and is about to have his first kid! His favorite movie is The Rocketeer. He wishes he had telekinesis.

DON’T PROCRASTINATE LIKE DA VINCI!

By Dana Crisson, Educator

Only one more week remains to tour our fascinating exhibit, Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion. Since it arrived February 7, over 40,000 visitors have toured the exhibit and marveled at his intricate machines. Visionary inventions such as the armored tank, the drive transmission, the printing press and the bicycle are on display, made with wood, rope and glue and other materials that were available in da Vinci’s era.

A number of special events have been scheduled for the final days of the exhibit. “Dads, Daughters and da Vinci,” a special Dad-Daughter Discovery Day held on April 11, featured Da Vinci’s parachute and glider, two of his inventions that focused on air and flight. And, since April is also National Kite Month, participants in this special program also built a kite to take home with them. Then on April 19 McWane hosted a “Happy 557th Birthday Leonardo!” party to celebrate his birthday on April 15, 1452. Visitors tested their invention and problem solving skills in the "What Would da Vinci Do?" Design Challenge; and in “Da Vinci Dissection,” visitors got the chance to think like Leonardo and dissected items like cameras and radios to find out how they work.

So, if you have put off touring the exhibit until now, don’t worry—there is still time. Actually, the fact that you procrastinated gives you something in common with da Vinci himself. According to W. A. Pannapacker, a professor at Hope College, da Vinci was a world-class procrastinator. In his article in The Chronicle Review titled “How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci,” Pannapacker describes Leonardo as a man whose mind was so filled with new and exciting ideas that he rarely had time to complete one project before he was racing ahead with another. We know that Leonardo spent over 35 years writing in his notebooks, drawing designs and schematics for thousands of revolutionary designs and inventions, so his home must have been crowded with half-finished projects. “Some of Leonardo's entries are short jottings; others are lengthy and elaborate. The notebooks give the impression of a mind always at work, even in the midst of ordinary affairs,” Pannapacker writes. “He returned to some pages intermittently over many years, revising his thoughts and adding drawings and textual elaborations.”

Unfortunately, Leonardo rarely found the time to actually complete many of the great projects that he sketched in his notebooks. “Not only did Leonardo fail to realize his potential as an engineer and a scientist,” Pannapacker continues, “but he also spent his career hounded by creditors to whom he owed paintings and sculptures for which he had accepted payment but — for some reason — could not deliver, even when his deadline was extended by years.”

Missed deadlines? Demanding creditors? This small tidbit of information was very comforting to me. If Leonardo da Vinci, arguably one of the most famous and gifted minds of all time, was plagued by looming deadlines and angry creditors, then I feel much better about my own stack of unfinished projects and unpaid bills. This knowledge is almost enough to make be want to join the local chapter of Procrastinators Anonymous (if and when I get around to it). Hey, if procrastination was good enough for daVinci, it is good enough for me!

Pannapacker sums up da Vinci’s amazing talent this way: “If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.”

So, if you haven’t had a chance to visit the exhibit yet, don’t be a procrastinator like its namesake—come appreciate the wonders of Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion, by April 26.

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson is a former Discovery Guild member who clocked many volunteer hours at the science center before joining the McWane staff in the Education Department. She and her husband, Dwight, a CPA, and their entire family follow in the proud Leonardo da Vinci tradition of procrastination. Their garage and basement are both filled with unfinished projects, and their daughters, Rachel, 20, and Christina, 17, routinely wait until the last minute to finish their term papers and other assignments.

WOW: Jellyfish!

Hi there! My name is Adele, and I am one of the other aquarists in the World of Water (aka "WOW"). The jellyfish is one of my favorite animals. What normally comes to mind when you think of a jellyfish? A dangerous predator, or perhaps a memory of a bad sting? Well, while jellyfish do sting, there is actually much more to them than that. They are beautiful, graceful animals and have a fascinating life cycle.

Jellyfish, along with corals and anemones, are found in the Phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are not really fish, they are actually invertebrates, like corals and anemones.The name Cnidaria comes from the Greek word “cnidos,” which means stinging nettle. While all jellies have the ability to sting, there are very few species that can actually harm us. All jellyfish have stinging cells known as nematocysts which are found in the tentacles and outer surface of the jellyfish bell. These nematocysts are harpoon-like in structure and contain a neurotoxin. When something brushes up against the tentacles of the jellyfish, the nematocyst is triggered and neurotoxin is injected into the jelly’s prey. Luckily, the stinging cells of most jellyfish often do not have the ability to penetrate through our skin, since these types of jellies use their stingers to feed on very small invertebrates and other soft bodied animals. Jellies with powerful nematocysts, strong neurotoxins, and long tentacles, such as the Portuguese Man-of -War, are the ones we need to look out for. Their prey consists of adult fish and crustaceans, so it would make sense that they need a sharper “harpoon” to penetrate these animals. Unfortunately, however, these animals can not see who or what they are stinging- they do not have eyes.

Jellies have a very simple body type - they do not have circulatory, respiratory, or nervous systems. What passes for a nervous system consists of a bundle of nervous on the outside of their bodies known as a “nerve net,” and only a few jellies have light sensitive organs, known as ocelli, which can detect light. Their digestive system is what scientists describe as an “incomplete gut,” meaning that they have a mouth but no anus. So, any food that the jellyfish eats that is not digested is actually expelled back through the mouth. Yuck! The jellyfish’s reproductive system, however, is fairly well developed.

Jellyfish are dioecious, meaning that there are male and female jellyfish. The jellyfish’s gonads, or reproductive organs, are located inside the bell of the jellyfish, next to the baglike stomach. When mature, the eggs or sperm break into the stomach cavity and exit the jellyfish through the mouth. If the jellyfish is female, she will store her eggs on the outside of her body until they are fertilized. The males will release their sperm into the water. After the eggs are fertilized, they will start their unique life cycle.

The life cycle is fairly complicated. In the first stage after fertilization, the free swimming larva is small, oblong, and fuzzy. This is known as a planula. It then settles onto a hard surface on the ocean floor and becomes a polyp. The polyp is non-swimming and begins a process of growing into a stack of small disks. This process is known as strobilation, and each of these small disks will become a jellyfish. Each of these small disks will break off and swim away. The newly released jelly is known as an ephyra, and takes the form of the jellyfish that we are the most familiar with.

If you have visited McWane Science Center recently, you have probably noticed our display of jellies in the World of Water. These are moon jellies, or Aurelia aurita. They are found all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole, and are quite numerous in the Gulf of Mexico. If you have been to the beach and saw a jellyfish, it was probably this species. It’s most distinguishable characteristic is the four horseshoe shaped rings that are on top of the bell. These are gonads, and they even change color depending on what type of food the jellyfish is eating. A moon jelly’s diet consists of plankton, which are tiny animals found in the water column. We feed our moon jellies a type of plankton known as brine shrimp, and occasionally they will also receive Cyclopeez, a red frozen plankton. And believe it or not, other aquatic creatures such as sea turtles, the ocean sunfish and even other jellyfish consider the moon jelly a delicious meal! This species is almost completely harmless to us. Contact with one of these guys will cause a mild itchy rash that will go away in a couple of hours.

So what does it take to keep jellyfish in captivity? Jellyfish require specialized equipment and excellent water quality. In the simplest jelly system, there is a reservoir for holding water, known as a sump, and then a display tank for the jellies. In the wild, jellyfish require water currents for feeding, movement, and oxygen intake. We are able to replicate this environment in captivity by using a U-shaped tank known as a kriesel, which allows a constant flow of current throughout the tank. Water re-enters the display tank through two spray bars found at the very top of the tank, and flows downward creating a circular current. The speed of the current must be very carefully adjusted- jellies need a “lava lamp” speed current, not a “washing machine” speed!

When water circulates out of the display tank, it leaves through a hole at the top that is covered by a screen, and then pumped into the sump. Water in the sump is then sent to various parts of the life support system just like a heart pumps blood to different parts of the body. Some of the water is sent to a chiller, which is used to cool the water, and some is also returned to the jellyfish display tank. And still some is sent through mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration, and then re-circulated back to the sump. All of these components together help not only to maintain excellent water quality, but also make our work much easier. We carry out small water changes and scrub the tank for algae on a weekly basis, in addition to maintaining our brine shrimp colony to feed to the jellies. As you can see, keeping jellyfish is a lot of work! If you would like to learn more about jellyfish husbandry, there is a wonderful book written by the senior jellyfish aquarist at Monterey Bay Aquarium. How to Keep Jellyfish in Aquariums: An Introductory Guide for Maintaining Healthy Jellies is written by Chad L. Widmer.

So the next time you visit McWane Science Center, be sure to make a stop in the World of Water to check out our jellyfish tank. Keep an eye out for the next blog from the World of Water- all about Buddy the moray eel!

Contributor Profile:
Loretta and Adele's backgrounds are in the life sciences. They both love their jobs as well as all animals. Adele grew up here in Birmingham and is into yoga and gourmet cooking. Loretta grew up in Florida and just had her first child YESTERDAY!