Synthetic Sebum Makes Slippery Sailboats

sonnejw0 writes "Sea-faring vessels are a major contributor of greenhouse gas production due to a deficit in international laws and inherent inefficiencies at sea, such as barnacle build-up on hulls. Many marine animals avoid the build-up of drag-inducing barnacles through secreting oily residues from their pores or through the nano-molecular arrangement of their skin. Sailors regularly defoul their hulls, removing the barnacles at dry-dock, which requires them to reduce the amount of time they have at sea. Some synthetic chemicals in paints have been used to prevent barnacle build-up but have been found to be toxic to marine animals and thus outlawed by several nations. Now, engineers are trying to replicate the skin of marine animals to produce a slippery hull to which marine bacteria cannot attach, saving fuel costs and improving speeds."

Comments

Re:I want this

[Stenchwarrior]

Foreplay with myself?

Re:What a first sentence...

[sexconker]

It's missing a comma, too.

"That vessel, the Emma Maersk and her sisters," should be "That vessel, the Emma Maersk, and her sisters,".

We're using commas to separate list elements. Let's not drop commas just because we have the word "and" there - that's sloppy, lazy, and ambiguous. English is shitty and ambiguous enough, so we need to avoid that shit whenever we can.

Now, if "that vessel" is referring to the Emma Maersk, then it should be a parenthetical.
"That vessel (the Emma Maersk), and her sisters,".

But who the fuck knows what that sentence was actually supposed to mean.