Abnormal Vertebræ in Herrings

Red herrings and rotten fish

Geoffrey B. West ∗, Van M. Savage, James Gillooly, Brian J. Enquist, William. H. Woodruff, James H. Brown 1 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. 2 The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA. 3 Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. 4 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson...

Injury to the Cervical Vertebræ

Fracture of the Atlas and Axis Vertebræ

MEFV mutations - therapeutic guides or red herrings?

Background/question Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is a hereditary inflammatory disorder characterised by self-resolving attacks of fever and serositis common in populations from Mediterranean ancestry [1]. Mutations affecting MEFV gene is believed to be responsible for the disease phenotype[1]. The correlation between the genotype and phenotype is not very strong, indicating the presence o...

The use of mechanical accumulators in robot herrings

In this paper we explain the mechanical design of the robot herring that we have developed. The use of mechanical accumulators is a fundamental issue in the design of this robot. Two different types of mechanical accumulators are implemented and tested as a spine on the robot. We argue that using an Euler buckled spine, on a robot fish, will give more efficient robots and a naturally occurring ...