Underwater surfaces can get grimy as they accumulate dirt, algae and bacteria, a process scientists call “fouling.” But furry mammals like beavers and otters that spend most of their lives wet manage to avoid getting their fur slimy. These anti-fouling abilities come, in part, from one of fur’s unique properties — that each hair can bend and flex as an animal moves.
Underwater surfaces can get grimy as they accumulate dirt, algae and bacteria, a process scientists call “fouling.” But furry mammals like beavers and otters that spend most of their lives wet manage to avoid getting their fur slimy. These anti-fouling abilities come, in part, from one of fur’s unique properties — that each hair can bend and flex as an animal moves.
Fouling on boats and machinery can be a big problem, and scientists are searching for ways to prevent it.
I’m a mechanical engineer who studies fluid dynamics, or how liquids behave. My team recently published a study showing that fur that was allowed to move back and forth in a flow of dirty water accumulated less than half the amount of dirt as fur that was held stiff from both ends.
While lots of animals have fur that seems to clean itself, semiaquatic mammals have the most grime-resistant, or “anti-fouling,” fur.
Our recent study compared fur fibers from beavers, otters, springbok, coyotes and more using a flow of water containing titanium dioxide, a common additive in cosmetics. Titanium dioxide readily attaches to surfaces like skin. Our team pumped the dirty water over individual fibers in a closed loop for 24 hours, then cleaned the fibers to measure how much titanium dioxide they’d accumulated.
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