STAR TREK, WRATH OF KHAN

Khan (Ricardo Montalban), professional Ceti Eel handler.

BE PREPARED!

Planning a vacation? Let me urge you to be an Informed Tourist and educate yourself about the types of parasites travelers to foreign planets may encounter. Picking up a brochure from the Federation of Planets' Health Department can help you avoid annoying diarrheal disease or parasitic mind control.

Vulcans and humans alike are subject to infestation of Ceti Eel larvae. Although this infestation is rare, emergence of the larva from under the armored scale of the reptile-like Eel adult, and subsequent migration to a human host has been known to occur.

If you encounter a Ceti Eel while on vacation, do not attempt to feed or touch it. Eels have been known to bite.

The larva enters the cranium via the auditory canal (ear hole), penetrating through bone and soft tissues alike to “wrap itself around the cerebral cortex.”

Eel entering auditory canal of non-consenting study subject. Eel size, approximately 3.5 cm.

Pathways utilized by the Ceti Eel.

How can an organism, only a few centimeters in length, wrap itself around a humanoid cerebral cortex? I have yet to find published research describing this phenomenon. Ceti Eel larvae are only a few centimeters in length when they enter the ear and (occasionally) exit it, with no measurable change in size or mass.

Diagram of cerebral cortex. It's big.

However, once ensconced around the cerebral cortex, the larval Eel can control the behavior of its host, compelling him to perform activities he (or she) would not otherwise engage in. The effect of the Ceti Eel on behavior is somewhat similar to the way in which the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii alters the behavior of the rodent it infects.

Chekov (Walter Koenig) doesn't want to help Khan. The Eel makes him behave like a rat on Toxo!

A MOMENT FOR EARTHLY MIND CONTROL

Just as Chekov wants to avoid Khan, rodents want to avoid cats. But rats infected by Toxplasma gondii demonstrate a distinct affinity to cat urine(1)! It is hypothesized that the protozoan influences rat behavior, for this particular parasite needs the rat to be eaten by the cat in order to complete its life cycle.

Mmm... what a lovely fragrance you have! Too bad this rat is under parasitic mind control!

In order to reduce your chances of Toxoplasma gondii infection(2) avoid eating or huffing cat poop, and don't vacation in France (or maybe you could just avoid French cats that eat a lot of raw game.)

BUT BACK TO THE EELS!

How does one detect Eel infestation? Signs and symptoms of Ceti Eel infestation include: headache, screaming, mild fever, behavioral and personality changes (compliance leading to dementia), slight bleeding from the ear, possibly death.

Bleeding from the ear, a common sign of Eel infestation.

There is no known treatment for Ceti Eel infestation. Tylenol or other analgesic medications may reduce headache and fever. Ceti Eel larvae do not seem to parasitize humans for any essential metabolic purpose, and occasionally will spontaneously re-emerge from their host’s ear with no perceptible alteration in size or shape.

Miraculously, infestation with Ceti Eel seems to have no detrimental effect on hearing.

If the infestation does not spontaneously resolve, death results.

Enjoy your trip!

1. Does this mean incontinent cats make better mousers?

2. In most people, presence of the protozoan is well tolerated, but avoid changing that litter box if you're pregnant.

SMORGASBORG #2: Exoskeletons part A

BIOMECHATRONICS

Hybrid Assistive Limb Suit

In the field of Biomechatronics(1) the integration of man and machine can be achieved through internal or external body/machine interfaces. Exploration of internal interfaces between the nervous, muscular, and other body systems are represented in movies like Terminator Salvation and Star Trek: First Contact, where living flesh encases machinery(2). We'll look at some aspects of internal interfaces in future posts.

You'll recall from SMORGASBORG #1 that my gauge for a cyborg is "some kind of sensory and/or motor interface between the man (or biological tissues) and his machine parts. This involves the exchange of data and of energy. This relationship between two independent systems (man and machine in the case of the movies we will look at) is a dynamic one, where each influence the other."(3)

Claudia Mitchell with a new prosthetic arm.

This one's real, folks!

This criterion for cyborgism means that a person wearing a truly biomechatronic exoskeleton, whether invasive or not, could fit the model of a cyborg. One can also be provided sensory and motor interfaces that are non-invasive. A person can be encased (all the way or partially) in an exoskeletal structure that provides feedback to the wearer. Cybernetic devices could be directed through physical manipulation, voice commands, or in some cases, thought commands. Electrodes and other types of sensors can read nervous impulses and brain waves via contact with the skin. Sensory information can be provided to the user of the device through skin contact, aurally, and visually.

Lobster attacked by a baby

(Thank you, Bill Rahner, for the photo!)

GETTING HUNGRY...

I have read (and heard) the exoskeletal construction of a cyborg described as a "lobster." It's an appropriate nickname if you think about it. This type of cyborg has a hard outer shell and a tender, juicy middle. Makes you want to throw Iron Man, live, into a big pot of boiling water, cook him up, then crack him out of his shell and eat him with melted butter. The more I think about dipping Robert Downey Jr. into melted butter, the more I like the "lobster" thing.

Mr. Downey as Tony Stark. Too much eye liner.

Iron Man, Matrix Revolutions, and Aliens fulfill the model of the exoskeleton with greater and lesser degrees of technological finesse. Stark is encased entirely in his "power suit" (power suit?!?!), has a visual, and probably a tactile, interface, and talks to Jarvis (a computer of artificial intelligence) through his suit, to give commands and request information. In Matrix, the Armored Personnel Unit is an exoskeletal weapon. There is direct communication with the external environment. It's a big walking gun with a person in it. Captain Mifune goes down in one while battling the machines (Sentinels? I forget what they're called). It's a good fight scene.

Nathanael Lees as Captain Mifune

From Cyberpunk Review

In Aliens, Ripley(4) makes herself the crudest cyborg of all. Much of her body is exposed. Her exosuit cargo loader is, well, a cargo loader, it has buttons and levers. Ripley uses it as a weapon. It's not clear in the film if she is provided with any feedback from the suit, or if information travels only from her to it. She does walk in the suit, which I think would require some type of feedback mechanism in order to maintain balance, but I'm not a biomechanic.

If we take this lobster-as-cyborg imagery too far, anyone in a car might be encased in an exoskeleton, and therefore a cyborg. I'm not willing to go there. Another feature that may disqualify these characters from being true cyborgs is that they can remove themselves from their casings at any time. On the other hand, I haven't read anything that decrees Once a Cyborg, Always a Cyborg.

Next time we look at exoskeletons, prosthetics, and some real life applications for a power suit.

1. Biomechatronics is an interdisciplinary field that combines robotics, neuroscience, "interface and sensory technology, and dynamic systems and control theory," whatever they are. The objective of biomechatronics is to create implements that interact with the body in order to restore it to mechanical function, or enhance its function. Biomechatronics - Assisting the Impaired Motor System, by P.H. Vletnik, et. al. is a fascinating read on this topic. The article is from the Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry 2001, Vol. 109, No 1, pp. 1-9. If you don't have access to the right database (hmmm, grad school has its advantages), you can purchase it through Pub Med, if you're inclined.

2. Of course, each movie has its own set of rules. In Star Trek it is revealed the Borg cannot survive without their fleshy parts, no matter how seemingly small a percentage of the Borg body is flesh. This is a major plot point regarding how the crew of the Enterprise overcome a Borg invasion. In contrast are the cybernetic organisms in the Terminator series, who lose their flesh and keep on going.

3. Cripes! Now I'm quoting myself!

4. Another actor to consider dipping in butter.

SMORGASBORG #1: What is a cyborg?

Yes, We is the new Queen of the Borg. As a Borg, We don't need glasses, but as the Queen, We thought it might help people take Us seriously.

BORGFUDDLING

Working on the Terminator Salvation posts generated some interesting conversation in my household over the following days. I've become curious about that meat/metal interface, what it takes to make a cyborg, how cyborgs are portrayed in the movies, and what a cyborg is and is not.

What is a cyborg? It depends who you ask. Some sources say a cyborg is anyone who uses a tool to enhance sensory input, or improve physical mechanics of the body. By that definition, eyeglasses, hearing aids, canes, crutches, and prosthetics have been making cyborgs of us for centuries(1). Other sources are more stringent in their definitions, and yet others seem to confuse terms like robot, android, and cyborg.

Cyborg, or Kindle?

Cyborg, or Kindle?

Language can get confusing. A Kindle covered in a leather casing is not a cyborg even though it resembles, on a crude level, the Terminator. Why is the Kindle not a cyborg? Because it is not encased in living tissue (just dead tissue), according to the definition used in The Terminator movies. My husband, the cartoonist, is crushed of course, because he was hoping we could buy a cyborg from Amazon.com.

GETTING TERMS STRAIGHT

Patrick Parrinder wrote a great historical survey of cyborgian literature and presents his own set of definitions, which I've paraphrased and embellished here(2).

Robot is the English version of the Czech robota, basically meaning "forced labor". This label can be applied to machines, which take the place of human workers. Examples of robots from film include V-Ger (Star Trek the Motion Picture), the Gunslinger (Westworld), and don't forget the autobots and decepticons (Transformers)!

The Gunslinger, looking like Yule Brenner

Android, meaning "manlike," was first used in 1727. The term is currently used to mean artificial human beings of organic substance. Replicants (Blade Runner) belong to this category.

Sean Young as Rachel-the-Replicant

Cyborg is a contraction of "cybernetic organism," which is how the Terminator labels itself. Cyborgs are constructed through surgical extension. They are not born, they are made. Some sources(3) say that a basic principle of cybernetics requires some kind of sensory and/or motor interface between the man (or biological tissues) and his machine parts. This involves the exchange of data and of energy. This relationship between two independent systems (man and machine in the case of the movies we will look at) is a dynamic one, where each influences the other.

The requirement of interface between the human and the artificial body part gives us a good base from which to look at cyborgs in the movies, so let's include this in our definition of cyborgs.

WHICH CYBORG MOVIES FIT THESE CRITERIA?

1. The Terminator series: The Terminator itself (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Marcus (Sam Worthington) from Terminator Salvation.

Marcus

2. Star Trek: First Contact: The Borg

The Borg Queen, before my reign.

3. Cyborg: Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon)

Little Pearl

4. The RoboCop series: RoboCop (Peter Weller). Oops! Picture gaff! We'll see him later...

5. I, Robot: Del Spooner (Will Smith) could qualify as a cyborg because he has a prosthetic arm that obviously has sensory and motor feedback systems that interact with his private parts (nervous system, musculature, etc.).

Spooner and his miracle arm

6. Iron Man: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) when he dons his "power suit." Power suit?!?

Iron Man

7. The Matrix Revolutions: Anyone wearing an Armored Personnel Unit.

APU

8. Aliens: Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) when she is wearing the exosuit cargo loader to battle the Alien Queen. Weak, I know, but I'll make my point next time.

Ripley suited up

I know what your thinking... You're wondering how I, Robot, Iron Man, Aliens, and Matrix Revolutions qualify as cyborg movies. Next time, we look at exoskeletons and cyborgs.

1. Someone should make a movie about Benjamin Franklin, the cyborg: struck by lightning while wearing glasses, the electrical charge fuses them to his head (and brain) and gives him super-human vision...

2. Robots, Clones and Clockwork Men: The Post-Human Perplex in Early Twentieth-Century Literature and Science. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Vol. 34 No. 1, March, 2009 pp. 56-67. You can purchase this article online if you're into the history of science fiction literature (or even if you're not).

3. Vanishing senses -- restoration of sensory functions by electronic implants. Rosahl, Steffen K. Poiesis & Praxis; may 2004, Vol. 2 Issue 4, pp 285-295. An excellent overview of what it means to enable the body with a sensory and/or motor interface. You can purchase this article through this link, or just check out the abstract.

Star Date: 2253.04

I saw Star Trek last night. Great movie! It has lots of action and aesthetically pleasing blood, which are two of my main priorities for this type of film.

Why am I interrupting the Spider-Man posts to talk about Star Trek? Well, dammit, Jim! This is important, man! It seemed like a good idea to go over a couple medical points that stood out. They were remarkable enough for me to try and take a couple notes in a dark theater, but shouldn't interfere with your enjoyment of the movie, in the least. Minor spoilers (for the extremely sensitive) follow.

Boy Spock: This is not the shot in discussion. I couldn't find that one on the IMDB

RED EARS, GREEN BLOOD

There is so much that is good about this movie, I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy it. The baby delivery scene is a hoot! But I did notice something that seemed like a bit of an oversight in a later shot that could have been corrected easily(1).

What was the problem? Boy Spock's ears. We see young Spock (Jacob Kogan), his lip split from a fight and oozing green blood, as he sits in front of a window, providing a flattering, glowing back light. He is impish and cute and has the look of an emotionless Vulcan school boy who knows he's been bad. The light from the window gently enfolds him and gives his little pointy ears a glowing pink tint.

This is where the record scratch sound that implies, "What the f---!" would come in. Don't get me wrong, the ear-glow is good. They make the prosthetic pointy ear (I assume it's a prosthetic) match its glow to Kogan's real ear, creating a seamless piece. But ears glow pink when light shines through them because of the red blood in the capillary beds of the ears.

I'm okay with green blood oozing from cute Vulcan red lips, this is art after all, but they missed an opportunity for a little finesse when they didn't make those ears glow green. The shot only lasts a few seconds. How hard can that be?

FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS

I just wanted to point out the scene where McCoy (Carl Urban) gives Kirk (Chris Pine) a vaccine so that Kirk will develop symptoms of illness and be taken on the Enterprise. He develops flu-like symptoms such as headache, nausea, fatigue, fever, etc. This is true of many vaccines for many diseases. They also added some colorful symptoms like blindness in the left eye. This sequence is not too far off base, but extremely sped up to keep the plot moving. An injection may be able to get into your bloodstream in seconds, but it is still going to take your body hours or days to react to the pathogens in the vaccine(2).

Kirk has an allergic reaction to the shot. This is a Type I hypersensitivity reaction. His hands and tongue swell. He's lucky he can still breathe. People who get swollen tongues often get swollen lips, and not like they've had a bit too much collagen injected there, either. Think of having a child's football attached to your face. This doesn't happen to Kirk, only his hands are disfigured by swelling, and he can't talk. It may be the severest reaction McCoy has seen to the vaccine, but Kirk is lucky nonetheless.

McCoy orders something that sounds like "cortisone" to be given to Kirk. Epinephrine-like drugs will probably still be the drug of choice in the future over a cortisone-like drug. Epi-pens are used for these types of emergencies, currently. But what do I know, I'm not a pharmacologist by any stretch of the imagination. That stuff is hard.

Vulcan nerve pinch: note the third and fourth finger placement over the area of the right brachial plexus as it emerges from the scalenes.

Brachial plexus

VULCAN PINCHES

This Vulcan nerve pinch thing cracks me up. As a massage therapist I can put people into exquisite pain by squeezing the upper trapezius or anterior and middle scalene muscles, but I have yet to be able to render a patient unconscious. Lord knows I've tried.

Anatomically speaking, the only bundle of nerves in the area is the brachial plexus, which is composed of nerves leaving the vertebrae of the neck. They pass between the two scalenes mentioned above, and then form a number of nerves that innervate the arm and hand.

Squeezing the brachial plexus with the Vulcan nerve pinch won't effect the brain, but could cause someone to develop a bad case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, or Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, or in extreme cases paralysis of the upper extremity.

This being said, I assume the nerve pinch is only doable by Vulcans because it involves some sort of telepathy, or mind-meldy thing to make it work.

ROSEY BLUSH

One last thing: Spock (Zachary Quinto) tries to strangle Kirk. When Spock releases him, Kirk has ruddy finger marks on his neck. Nice touch!

Next time we continue our discussion of fibroblasts and Spider-Man's biological web spinning abilities... I swear it!

1. If you have an extra million dollars lying around for things like this.

2. For more on flu-like symptoms, go to the first Spider-Man post.