This is actually a fascinating article, and I am suitably grossed out and fascinated at the same time. Good HN material, in the 'Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups.' guideline sense.
My PhD research was actually studying the leech nervous system. They're still an important 'model' organism in neurobiology. Probably not as important in the field at large as they were in, say, the 1970s, but still. They're also a good system for neurophysiology education, because they are cheap and easy to obtain, have large-ish neurons that are identifiable from animal to animal, and their nervous system has a relatively simple organization.
The other day someone posted something interesting about leeches. Apparently you can use anti-mosquito spray to make them detach from the skin in minutes.
Saw that comment and I’m pretty sure that it is a bad idea since the article explicitly mentioned that stressing the leeches causes them to “vomit blood back into your bloodstream” and introduces a risk of bacterial infections. The advice was to use a credit card to quickly break the suction seal and force the leech to detach.
Your local hospital quite likely currently has a tank of leeches. They are still used in surgery. Especially after reattachment surgeries. They secrete anticoagulants which prevent blood clotting. They are also used in microsurgery to increase blood flow to a certain area.
> Because of the minuscule amounts of hirudin present in leeches, it is impractical to harvest the substance for widespread medical use. Hirudin (and related substances) are synthesized using recombinant techniques. Devices called "mechanical leeches" that dispense heparin and perform the same function as medicinal leeches have been developed, but they are not yet commercially available.
It's a bigger business than most people realize. Most operating rooms probably maintain a tank of leeches. They are used in reattachment and plastic surgery as well as microsurgery
Readit News
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_prognosticator
* results may vary.
> Because of the minuscule amounts of hirudin present in leeches, it is impractical to harvest the substance for widespread medical use. Hirudin (and related substances) are synthesized using recombinant techniques. Devices called "mechanical leeches" that dispense heparin and perform the same function as medicinal leeches have been developed, but they are not yet commercially available.
https://leechesusa.com