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Hagfish Slime Could Make Super-Strong Clothes
Having the ability to create a 20 liter cloud of slime and tie themselves in knots, hagfish have always been one of my favorite deep-sea denizens. Being a living slime dispenser has not won the species many fans however, with the notable exceptions of Mike Rowe and Dr. Egon Spengler. All that is about to change thanks to the work of a research team at Canada’s University of Guelph. They've found that hagfish slime might be used to make new plastics and even super-strong fabrics. From the article: "A research team at Canada’s University of Guelph managed to harvest the slime from the fish, dissolve it in liquid, and then reassemble its structure by spinning it like silk. It’s an important first step in being able to process the hagfish slime into a useable material, according to Atsuko Negishi, a research assistant and lead author on the paper in this week’s journal Biomacromolecules. 'We’re trying to understand how they make these threads and how we can learn from that to make protein-based fibers that have excellent mechanical properties,' Negishi said. 'The first step is can we harvest the threads. It turns out that is doable.'"
Isn't it the same Mike Rowe as in Mike Rowe Soft ? :D
I am not sure I want my new shirt to turn back into slime if it gets wet...
P.S. This post is a joke.
This is relevant to them.
The article makes the astounding claim that this animal "hasn’t evolved for 300 million years". Sounds like hogwash to me, but is there any indication that this is true?
Sounds like politicians trying to justify their positions.
The rebranding necessary for this to sound appealing will be a joy to watch.
Synthetics like nylon are generally made by going down the energy gradient. That is, you start with something high in energy like petroleum, then run it through a bunch of chemical reactions which use up bits of the energy contained therein to make your synthetic fiber. This works because the energy gradient makes the raw chemicals want to combine the way you want them to, and all you have to do is mix them in the right amounts at the right time (and sometimes right temperature and pressure).
Naturals like silk and cotton go up the energy gradient. Start with raw materials, add energy, and build the fibers out of sugars (cellulose - cotton) or proteins (silk). If you mix a bunch of the raw ingredients in a beaker, they won't combine they way you want them to because it's going up the energy gradient. You need little machines which take energy and combine the materials in the shape you want. Our nano-technology isn't good enough yet to compete with nature''s nano-technology, so it's easier to have plants and animals do the nano-assembly and just harvest the final product.
Unless the fibers from hagfish slime buck the trend and go down the energy gradient, they're unlikely to replace synthetics. All you'll end up doing is raising hagfish on a farm to harvest their slime, which you refine into these fibers. Production capacity will be limited by the number of hagfish you can raise, as opposed to synthetics whose production is limited by the raw materials you can acquire. In other words, don't expect this to replace plastics unless hagfish turn out to be extraordinarily easy to farm in huge numbers.
...or is that just hagfish slime?
Somehow I can't quite see that catching on.
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This was shown on in one section of "Richard Hammond's Miracles of Nature", available via your favourite torrent site.
In other words, don't expect this to replace plastics unless hagfish turn out to be extraordinarily easy to farm in huge numbers.
I have no doubt that they would be ridiculously easy to farm. They may be slightly harder to farm than cockroaches.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
They mentioned that farming it from the fish in adequate amounts would difficult. They hope to graft the slime production into bacteria for mass production.
There goes the population of this fish...to be found useful in the world as it currently is is to effectively be handed a death sentence.
The fish needs a better name if this does take off, Hagfish is not viable from a marketing standpoint. Also the slime needs a more scientific name: Hagis Slimus shirts anyone?
let me know when i can buy tights/pants for my kid using this.
you can be raising the fruffiest Princess Ever but if she trips while skipping down the lane those tights are TOAST
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What happened to hemp? I could support hemp.
Having the ability to create a 20 liter cloud of slime and tie themselves in knots, hagfish have always been one of my favorite deep-sea denizens.
Your fetishes are not really appropriate for a public forum.
...you had me at "Egon"
Anytime I see an article with the name of a character from a classic movie, in this case Ghostbusters, I get suspicious.
Since I was curious about the hagfish, looked up and found this video, showing it using its slime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfyq4Zhr5Y8
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But I need 3 runes before I can do that.
Smells like ..... hagfish.
Have gnu, will travel.
"Having the ability to create a 20 liter cloud of slime and tie themselves in knots, hagfish have always been one of my favorite deep-sea denizens."
Well, if there was any doubt that you're creepy and weird, that's settled now.
Well, they found something weird, who did they call :-)
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Two points to note: We *are* running out of raw materials for synthetics, as they are made using crude oil. And the hagfish slime fabric would likely first replace similar natural fabrics such as silk.
With those points in mind, I think hagfish harvesting might just be economically viable. At least we've finally found a use for the disgusting things.
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As a Canadian I have no idea what grits are.
As a Slashdotter I am still mystified at the whole petrified thing.