We Are Cyborgs

RoboCop, the Bionic Woman, Darth Vader-what do these characters have in common? They are all cyborgs-humans who are made more powerful by advanced technology. You might think that cyborgs exist only in fiction, or are a possibility only in the distant future. But cyborg technology already exists.

The word “cyborg” was first used in 1960 and defined as an organism “to which external components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments”. According to this definition, an astronaut in a spacesuit is an example of cyborg, as the spacesuit helps the astronaut adapt to a new environment-space. More recently, the word has evolved to refer to human beings who have mechanical body parts that make them more than human.

Although super-humans like RoboCop are not yet a reality, advances in real-life cyborg technology allow some people to compensate for abilities they have lost, and give other people new and unusual abilities. An example is filmmaker Rob Spence and his bionic eye. Spence injured one of his eyes in an accident. A camera was implanted in his prosthetic eye(假眼).   The eye is not connected to his brain or optic nerve(视神经), but it can record what he sees. Spence has used his camera eye to record interviews for a documentary about people with bionic body parts.

Some types of cyborg technology replace a lost ability by connecting directly to a person’s nerves. Michael Chorost completely and suddenly lost his ability to hear in July of 2001. Two months later, doctors placed a cochlear implant, a kind of computer, inside his skull. This type of implant connects to auditory nerves and allows a deaf person to hear again. Around the world, over 300,000 people have now been fitted with cochlear implants.

These examples of cyborg technology have enabled people to enhance or change their abilities and improve their lives. But does everyone want to use cyborg technology? It might be too late to decide. Cyborg scientist Amber Case argues that most of us are already cyborgs. Anyone who uses a computer or a smartphone, Case claims, is a cyborg. Consider the data that you have in your smartphone. It keeps information for you so you don’t have to remember it: notes, phone numbers, email addresses, messages. It also allows you to communicate with friends and family via telephone, text messages, email, and social networks.

The potential benefits of cyborg technology are evident, but can this new technology be harmful, too? Could we become too dependent on cyborg technology-and become less than human? These still remain questions.

The human spine doesn’t just help us stand up straight. Inside the spine is the spinal cord (脊髓), which carries important information between the head and the lower part of the body. This information moves around as tiny, short bursts of electricity which travel between the brain and the other parts of the body.

The legs and feet send “sense” information to the brain, saying they’re hurt or hot. And the brain sends signals to the lower body, perhaps telling the legs to walk, dance, or sit down. Towards the bottom of the spine, nerves leave the spine. Different nerves help control different groups of muscles in the legs.

When someone’s spinal cord is hurt, this important pathway can get damaged. When that happens, a person is “paralyzed”, and he can’t move his legs. Now scientists in Lausanne, Switzerland have given three paralyzed men the ability to walk again. Each of the three men had damaged their spinal cords in motorcycle accidents and couldn’t move their legs.

To walk again, the man had operation. A special device was placed directly on the lower part of their spinal cords, below their injury. The implant (植入物) contained sixteen electrodes, which are small objects that electricity can pass through. The researchers made sure the electrodes on the implant were lined up with the nerves that control the leg muscles. To begin with, the scientists controlled the implants from a computer. Just hours after the implants were first used, all three men were taking steps, with support.

In the past, scientists have had some success with similar implants in the lower spine. But this research is different. The patients’ brains aren’t sending messages to their legs. The researchers used computers to set modes of movement—like taking a step—that would work well with each patient. The patients then used the computer to choose the pattern they wanted. That caused the implant, and the muscles to move in the chosen way. Over time, the men were able to walk entirely on their own, using a special walker with buttons to trigger each leg.

The solution isn’t perfect. It’s very expensive, it requires difficult surgery, and the patients can’t walk without the system. But the scientists are expecting that in the future, this technology will allow many paralyzed people to begin to walk again in just hours.

Wildlife conservation is the preservation and protection of animals, plants, and their habitats. By conserving wildlife, we’re ensuring that future generations can enjoy our natural world and the unbelievable species that live within it. To help protect wildlife, it’s important to understand how species interact within their ecosystems, and how they are affected by environmental and human influences.

Plants and animals have life events that seemingly occur like clockwork every year. Birds can migrate, mammals may hibernate (冬眠), flowers bloom, and leaves change colors. The study of how the biological world times these natural events is called phenology. Scientists now understand that plants and animals are strongly influenced by their local climate (long-term weather patterns). Climate is affected by non-biological factors — temperature, precipitation (降水), and available sunlight. Species use the predictable yearly changes in the climate to determine when they start natural events such as breeding or flowering.

Climate change is slowly increasing average annual temperatures. One of the most noticeable ways that climate change is influencing wildlife is by changing the timing of natural events. With warmer temperatures, flowering plants are blooming earlier in the year and migratory birds are returning from their wintering grounds earlier in the spring. Phenology is an important subject for conservationists to study because it helps us understand the patterns of specific species and overall ecosystem health. Every species has an effect on those in its food chain and community, and the timing of one species’ phenological events can be very important to the survival of another species.