In the two World Wars, pigeons were used extensively as postmen, and some of them won medals. And all of that was not enough, as the American Army thought during World War II of making them draw a weapon and commit suicide!
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The story began in 1943, when the US Army faced a problem on the naval battlefields. He had enough bombs and missiles but had no proven and reliable way to accurately direct this type of munitions to their targets, especially while targeting enemy warships.
The American scientist specializing in animal and human psychology and behavior, Burrhus Frederick Skinner, found the solution to this problem by using carrier pigeons, as in correspondence!
Skinner was at the time working as a professor at the University of Minnesota and conducting experiments on animals to understand human behavior. Since 1940, he began conducting experiments on these birds and devised a method that he could use to guide another body.
The experiment was relatively simple, in which the pigeon was placed in a leather belt, and when it clicked on a specific picture in front of it, a small bowl of cereal opened in front of it as a reward. In this way, pigeons are taught to direct a small cart to the target point by clicking on pictures. Later, the experiments developed and reached the point of making pigeons direct weapons toward other targets, such as models of small ships.
Initially, Skinner was unable to attract the attention of the US Army, but in June 1943 the Pentagon's Office of Scientific Research and Development gave General Mills, which was funding Skinner at that point, a small contract to attempt to develop a pigeon-guided system.
Peggy Kidwell, curator of medicine and science at the American History Museum, says: “During World War II, there was great concern about the guidance of missiles...Military officials really wanted to know how to direct them accurately. Skinner presented his plan to the National Defense Committee. He called it “Project Dove. The committee members were skeptical, but they gave Skinner $25,000 to get started.”
The American scientist concluded that birds accomplish such a task better if they work in a group of three pigeons. The three pigeons are placed in the rocket's nose cone, which is called the "swan," and each pigeon will look at a small screen in front of it that displays the ground in front of the launching rocket. When the pigeon clicks on the image of the target, which is a ship, small balls attached to its heads direct the missile. Of course, the three pigeons would not be able to leave the missile and would end up with the target.
The next experiments were conducted on pigeons to direct missiles to the target. They were very successful, and the pigeons were adept at identifying the target and moving in its direction without being affected by noise, temperature fluctuations, or changes in the heights of the missile.
This project remained on paper and did not come into being, and was closed in 1944. Later, in 1948, the US Navy revived the idea of using pigeons to guide anti-ship missiles, and the “Pigeon” project was renamed. To "Orkon".
Fortunately for the pigeons, the project file was closed again in 1953, when the importance of the project decreased thanks to technological progress in the field of guidance systems, and the idea of controlling weapons by a living being was abandoned.
“A Leap towards Immortality.” Chinese scientists are developing a technology capable of reversing aging
A team of Chinese scientists said it has discovered a way to reverse aging in a "giant leap towards human immortality".
In this new scientific breakthrough, scientists have cracked the code for hydrogen therapy, that is, they have presented a cutting-edge approach that uses nanotechnology-based implants to deliver hydrogen, which can help solve problems related to aging and diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The study, a collaborative effort from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, underscores hydrogen's potential to delay the cellular clock.
Aging and some diseases are often associated with a process called cellular senescence, in which cells stop dividing and release inflammatory substances.
The scientists wrote in a research paper: “The aging microenvironment, which causes persistent inflammation and loss of intrinsic regenerative capabilities, is a major obstacle to effective tissue repair in elderly individuals.”
This It creates a physical environment that hinders tissue repair, accelerates aging, and may lead to bone problems in older people, making it difficult for fractures to heal.
However, current drugs developed by scientists to stop cellular aging have limitations, cause side effects and have limited effectiveness.
Interestingly, hydrogen molecules have shown promise as a safe and broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory agent, due to their ability to neutralize harmful radicals.
The small but powerful implant delivers hydrogen in a better way than usual, such as drinking hydrogen-rich water or inhaling hydrogen gas.
Using nanotechnology, scientists have developed an implantable scaffold that aims to deliver hydrogen directly to a person 40,000 times more effectively than other common methods.
The small scaffold is intricately designed to release hydrogen steadily over the course of a week. The team conducted pre-clinical experiments on elderly mice. The implant, which acts as a stimulator, showed prowess in bone repair but also showed results in cell regeneration.
The new approach changed the cell's infrastructure, reducing inflammation and making the cells work better.
This discovery offers hope in the fight against the problems that accompany aging and represents a major step forward in finding new treatments, as it opens up possibilities for transformative treatments that could make a big difference in addressing age-related issues.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
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