The pit viper has granules (or ‘pits’) in its nostrils that enable it to detect well beyond striking range, the heat difference between the body temperature of say a rodent, that it preys on, and the rocks under which it is lying low. This ability of the pit viper, has been utilized by defence scientists, to design and develop the thermal imaging devices (TI), now commonplace in the forces the world over. The TI devices differentiate between the absolute zero (–273 degrees centigrade) and the target. Believe it or not but it is true. The ability of the humming-bird to hover manifest itself in the modern-day helicopter, first conceptualized by Leonardo da Vinci in a rough sketch drawing. The hard disks try and copy the intricate circuitry of the human brain. Every one agrees to this. The giant lumbering dinosaur the Tyrannosaurus Rex surprised its prey with the help ’stealth’ capabilities it possessed. Now stealth technology is effectively used in military aircraft and naval vessels to minimize signatures on hostile radar screens. Believe it or not, but mosquitoes have infra-red (IR) vision that enables them to locate hosts and even individual blood cells, in the dark!
“Birds & animals are gifted with sub-sonic hearing power that allows them to sense what is ahead. ” One may call this a unique power, the fact is that birds and animals are highly evolved beings’ says conservationist Mike Pandey. It has been scientifically proved that several are far superior to humans in their sensory abilities to sound, temperature, touch, vibration, and to electrostatic, chemical and magnetic changes in the environment. It is quite possible that occurrences of some calamities is preceded by minute disturbances in the environment, including occurrence of low-intensity ground vibrations, low frequency sounds and changes in magnetism. It is possible animals detect these and respond to them before humans can.
Whales in the Arctic Circle are known to loose their sense of direction during sun-storms that affect the magnetic field of the earth. Migratory birds can actually see earth’s magnetic field. They are enabled to do this with aid of cells in the retina of their eyes having proteins that are sensitive to magnetic variations. These can detect fluctuations in magnetic patterns along with light. Experiments have shown, that, songbirds like robins, thrushes, flycatchers, and warblers use these for navigation during migrations in darkness. They see the magnetic field super-imposed on the landscape much like the displays found in modern fighter-jets.
Animal behaviour is just one of the clues used by some energy traders and analysts to try and predict temperatures in the US North East as a barometer for oil-demand. Narrow patches of brown fur on the back of wooly bear caterpillars in the autumn, are as a signs of a harsh winter following. Frantic corn gathering activity by squirrels in the autumn confirms this prognosis. Furthermore, Rodent Punxsutawney Phil says that bees build hives closer to the ground if heavy snow not anticipated.
But can they be relied upon for early warning of disasters? May be, may be not as the following anecdote illustrates. There is a story where Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were suddenly confronted by a huge dog barking ferociously. Watson said, ‘Don’t worry Holmes, barking dogs don’t bite’. Holes reply was a classic.’Watson, you & I know the proverb, but does the dog know it?’. The point I want to make is that just as animals are not aware of the proverbs that we have coined about them, it is unlikely that we will be able to decipher their behaviour so easily.
Even if disappearance of animals just before the tsunami was noticed, I am sure that at the most we would be have predicted an earthquake. A tsunami would have been the last thing we would have expected. Yet animals along the Cuddalore coast, the cows bathing in a pond in Kodiyanpalayam, and elephants, water-buffaloes, goats and dogs in national parks of Sri Lanka and Thailand fled to higher grounds much before the December 2004 Asian tsunami waves starred lashing. Flamingoes, which normally bred at that time of the year, flew to safe sanctuaries at higher levels. ‘Red Bait’ fish was discovered in trawler nets in Pondicherry two months before tsunami hit. Though the sighting of this fish always precedes natural calamity they chose to over look the warning. There are reports of several natural disasters including anecdotes of strange behaviour exhibited by animals and birds a few hours before they occur. Should we put in place a system that uses precursory sense of animals and birds to pick up signs of dangerous eco-changes?
The tsunami has put a question mark over the human-kinds power to detect disasters when life form in the lower evolutionary order ( but earlier advent on earth! ) keep getting wind of the same the world over. From Khao Lak Elephant Trekking Centre in Thailand to the Yala National Park on the Srilankan coast pachyderms were trumpeting long before the waves came crashing. On the Patanjala beach where sixty odd sight-seers were washed away, not a single carcass was found of any of the elephants, leopards, and hundred of birds in an area of 1300 square kilometers that is home to these creatures. This has been confirmed by none other than the redoubtable National Geographic. Among the debris were signs that animals fled while fisher-folk on the beaches remained blissfully unaware, as also scientists surrounded by expensive gadgets and Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD).
Many scientists opine that animals have a sixth sense that alerts them to danger. ‘At one time humans too possessed the sixth sense;’ Alan Rabbinowitz; the director for Science and Exploration at New York’s Wild Life Society; says, ‘but lost it when it was no longer needed in the process of mutation and evolution with developments in the cognitive abilities of the brain and the ability of the humans to stand up straight for locomotion.’ Earthquakes bring vibrational changes on land and in water, while storms cause electromagnetic changes in the atmosphere. Some animals have an acute sense of hearing and smell that allow them to get an early warning of oncoming danger long before humans become aware of it. In Japan, one of world’s most earthquake-prone regions, researchers have studied animals in the hope of using them as tools of prediction. As opposed to this some US seismologists trash all such studies as being anecdotal. According to Andy Michael of United States Geographic Society, ” Animals react to so many things—–hunger, defending territory, mating,.. .. predators that it is hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal.”
Sleep deprivation research centered around animals and birds has gained momentum in the US Advance Research Projects Agency after the fast pace of operations undertaken in the Gulf wars. The hectic pace of 24×7-type of operations envisaged in the new Indian Army Doctrine tried out in Ex Vajra Shakti will make soldiers, deprived of sleep, groggy resulting in poor judgment. It is well known that porpoises switch off half of brain in cycles of three hours. Migratory birds in long flights do not sleep; and make the 21-day flight to resting areas without sleep. And a double –take : albatrosses doze off whilst cruising at 25 mph! How do they manage? Research has shown that fruit flies can be altered genetically to stay awake. Can this have applications in altering human biology? Soldiers need it, as also the reverse, hibernation, is sorely sought for astronauts in inter-planetary travels.
Dolphins are mammals and unlike humans are conscious breathers——they have to decide actively when to breathe. Consequently, in order to breathe, they have to be conscious. Since mammalian brains need to enter an unconscious state from time to time in order to function correctly, dolphins let only half the brain sleep at a time. In this way, they are never completely unconscious, but still get rest the rest they need. Dolphins are in this state for approximately eight hours a day. Chemicals stimulants, that could allow only half the brain to keep awake for sixty hours or more and the other rest, like the dolphins are under scrutiny. Which brain circuits allow some people to stay awake for 60 hours or more whereas others degrade after 24 hours? A young Erwin Rommel went without a wink for eleven days when behind enemy lines. Napoleon did not need much sleep. And Shah Rukh Khan is still turned on to serenade his heroines only after four hours of shut-eye; whereas Albert Einstein had to sleep up to ten hours a night to be any good with e=mc square! No wonder, therefore, that, understanding bio-functions and genetics to get to know as to how birds and animals undergo protracted stress with out sleep is being studied. ‘Go-pills’ as alternatives to amphetamines, which do not necessarily stop the breakdown of functions that come with of sleep, are being tried out.
This takes one to a step closer to bionics that can end up in super-humans called cyborgs based on wired internet-related wired duplications is the recent case in point. These man-machines could be gifted the acute sense of smell of dogs; and chemical-agent trails of ants for locating ’soldiers’ in an ant colony; for hunting down trailing insurgents in hot pursuit ! Enemy soldiers can be subjected to mood depressants by sub-sonic flat sound notes. And own assaulting troops to mood and emotion detectors. Can the sub-sonic mating calls of elephants be simulated and utilized in the vexed problem of IFF by the pilots of supersonic fighter air craft? Whales and porpoises communicate freely using the sub-sonic spectrum. Surely ear-drums of the cyborg can be mutated to catch these?? Ground attack pilots could also do with the sharp eye vision of eagle flying high above in the skies but swooping down to ground level once its prey has been acquired? And to be sure that pilots have their tail clear nothing like the 360 degree vision of the owl. An array of computer-controlled mirrors could replicate this. Celestial navigation based on the magnetic resource identification of the migratory birds coupled with the location of the star Sirius, which, since the days of The Chariots of the Gods, remains always static in the heavens, should be a boon for navigators in bad weather long flights.
Dr Joseph Ayers of Northeastern University’s Marine Science Centre, is one among many robotics research scientists who regards animals as their muses. Their field is referred to as biomimetics. Firmly believing that machines inspired by biology will be able to operate in places where today’s robots can’t. With this in view, robotic lobsters, flies, dogs, fish, snakes, geckos and cockroaches are being developed. Ayers Robolobster is being designed to hunt for mines that float in shallow water, or are buried under beaches, a harsh environment where live lobsters have no trouble maintaining sure footing. Howie Choset of Carnegie Mellon University has been testing sinuous segmented robots based on snakes and elephants’ trunks that may be perfect machines to search for survivors in battle-fields and rubble of structures destroyed by explosions or natural disasters. The US military has been interested in animal-like robots since 1968 when GE built a gasoline powered walking machine that resembled an elephant.
Dogs have long been used by the military and police forces for smelling/sniffing out/tracking targets. But it will be a revelation for many to know that now they are being experimented with to detect cancer! And the Israelis are about to perfect their ’skunk’ bombs, based on the pong of skunks, to force the enemy to flee their defences. The police will be using it to aid dispersal of hostile crowds. This is as a part of the inventory of non-lethal weapons, now preferred in the interest of use of minimum force, in aid to civil authority. Smell is also being tried out as a smart ’second-skin’, a clothing that has dozens of tiny tubes embedded into the design, which reacts to changes in the body’s temperature and gives off a spray of perfumes. It may be that the wearer is having panic attacks or his heart is racing. The dress reacts to this and gives off a calming scent. This has military applications. The rat’s sense of smell and hearing very low and very high audio frequencies has been utilised in initial experiments to distinguish between spoken Dutch and Japanese!’ And according to new research maggots will be preferred over surgery in years to come!
Current advances in medicines will lead to major breakthroughs in genetics between 201 and 2030 that will extend life spans. Then advances in nano-technology will make possible truly radical life extension, as death meets its nemesis. This coupled with futuristic robotics will alter earth life form to cyborgic one. This is the prediction of a renowned thinker Ray Kurzweil. RobSoldiers are not far off! It is truly then that the body-bag-less US dream of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) could be said to have really arrived at !
(The Writer Lt. Col A.K. ‘Sam’ Sharma is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla. Col Sharma was commissioned into the 3rd Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in Februray 1964, He retired in 1997 after serving for 33 years. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he holds a MSc Degree in Defence Studies from the Madras University. This officer has been on the instructional staff of two of Indian Army’s premiere training institutes: the College of Combat; now known as the War College; (Directing Staff Junior Command Wing-1972-1975) and the Infantry School ( Senior Instructor, Platoon Commander’s Wing—1984-87) both located in Mhow (MP); where he taught tactics at the unit and sub-unit levels to students, some of who were from friendly foreign armies. He has also served at the world- renowned Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Col Sharma can be contacted at aksh9@airtelbroadband.in)
