Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
How new technologies are modifying our way of life


lundi 12 janvier 2004
 

Researchers from Purdue University working under an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) have discovered that common blue mussels are using iron found in seawater to create their own super glue.

As you can see below, this super glue is not terribly attractive to look at. Here is this mussel glue, as imaged by a scanning electron microscope at a magnification of 25,000X (Credit: Debby Sherman and Jonathan Wilker, Purdue University, NSF).

Mussel glue at a magnification of 25,000X

Other large images are available on this NSF page.

Here are some details about this discovery.

Researchers have discovered that iron in seawater is the key binding agent in the super-strong glues of the common blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. This is the first time researchers have determined that a metal such as iron is critical to forming an amorphous, biological material.
In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transport of invasive species, such as the zebra mussel that has ravaged the midwestern United States.

Jonathan Wilker, Mary Sever and their colleagues at Purdue University present their work in the January 12 issue of Angewandte Chemie under the name "Metal-Mediated Cross-Linking in the Generation of a Marine-Mussel Adhesive."

En route to crafting synthetic versions of the glue, the researchers discovered that bivalves extract the metal iron from the surrounding seawater and use it to join proteins together, linking the fibrous molecules into a strong, adhesive mesh. The 800 mussels in Wilker's laboratory have an uncanny ability to stick to almost anything, even Teflon®.

Here is a mussel adhering to a sheet of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (Teflon) (Credit: Wilker Group at Purdue University).

Mussel adhering to a sheet of Teflon 

Now, the researchers want to know if such a creation of a protein through the use of metal is a common phenomenon.

"We are curious as to whether or not this newly discovered, metal- mediated protein cross-linking mechanism of material formation is a prevalent theme in biology. We will be exploring systems such as barnacle cement, kelp glue and oyster cement to see how other biomaterials are produced," says Wilker.

So, the next time you'll buy some superglue, you might read "grown from mussels" on the label.

Source: National Science Foundation, January 12, 2004, via EurekAlert!


1:06:39 PM   Permalink   Comments []   Trackback []  


Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website. © Copyright 2004 Roland Piquepaille.
Last update: 01/11/2004; 08:54:21.


January 2004
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Dec   Feb


Search this blog for

Courtesy of PicoSearch


Supported by
BigFitness.com

If you're tired to read about technology, it's time to take a break.
Try their exercise and fitness equipment.
Read more


Personal Links



Other Links

Ars Technica
Bloglines
BoingBoing
Daily Rotation News
del.icio.us
Engadget
Feedster
Gizmodo
I4U News
Mindjack Daily Relay
Nanodot
Slashdot
Smart Mobs
Techdirt
Technorati


People

Paul Boutin
Dan Gillmor
Lawrence Lessig
Jenny Levine
Karlin Lillington
John Robb
Dolores Tam
Jon Udell
Dave Winer


Drop me a note via Radio
Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.

E-mail me directly at
pique@noos.fr

Subscribe to this weblog
Subscribe to "Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends" in Radio UserLand.

XML Version of this page
Click to see the XML version of this web page.