Bad Bear Hair! Oily hair gives fur fur fur with ACTION properties

After some polar sleep, which included hair monitoring collected from six polar bears in the wild, scientists were inserted “sebum” (or ointment) into the hair as an increasingly important patron saint. This sebum, which consists of cholesterol, diacylglycerol and fatty acids, is very difficult to attach the ice to their fur.

Although this finding throws a fascinating new light on our understanding of a polar bear-well even inuit-ecology, it may also have a package of unrelated application, with similar fiction of artificial sebum, promising to be useful as an anti-lege surface of coating, or in skiing skin the next genes used by skiers and snowboarders.

Julian Carolan, a doctoral candidate from Trinity College Dublin’s Chemistry and The Amber Research Ireland Center, is the first author of an article in the journal, which was published today as a cover in the leading international Science Advances.

He said: “We have measured the strength of the adhesion on the ice, which is a useful measure of how much LED holds fur; hydrophobicity, which dictates whether the water can be spilled before freezing; and freezing the delay time, which simply shows how long it takes for a drop freezing water at certain temperatures on a particular surface.

“Sebum quickly jumped up as a key component that gives this effect against acid, because we found that the adhesion strength was largely affected when the hair was washed. Unmanned, oily hair is much harder to glue. The bear hair is washed and the grease is in A large extent is removed similar to human hair, which ice is easily glued to be washed or oily.

This finding stated that he made a detailed chemical analysis of the Polar Bear sebum. Like the identification of key components (cholesterol, diacylglycerols and fatty acids), they were surprised to find “squalen”. This oily metabolite is present in human hair, and in the hair of other water animals, such as marine otter, which suggests its absence in the hair of a polar bear, is very important from the perspective against the condition.

Dr. Richard Hobbs, Assistant Professor and Foundation of the Royal Society-Cience Foundation Ireland University, researcher at Trinity Schools of Chemistry and Amber Research Ireland Center, is a senior author of an article in the journal. He added: “Animals living in polar habitats appeared as a source of inspiration for the development of new materials for illegal.

“For example, the Anne Kietzig Group in McGill recently revealed that the hierarchical structure of feathers of the Gentoo Ponguin provided them with acids that relied on the structure of feathers, not the transmission you produce a state-based area based on a characteristic lipid mix present in their Fur or hair fat.

“This work not only represents the first study of Sebum from the Polar Bear, but also resolves the question of why polar bears do not suffer from ice buildup. Despite having thick layers of insulation bluch and fur and consume extensive periods in water on Subli temperature, makes it The fur ointment is provided by a natural path for polar bears to easily spill ice when formed because of the weak ice adhesion on their fur.

“We expect that these natural lipid coating produced by a bear will help us develop new sustainable coating to combat traffic that can replace problematic” forever chemicals “like PFA used as an anti-acid coating.”

In addition to structural explanations, these interesting discoveries help us to better understand hunting behavior – both polar bears and native inuit populations.

Professor Bodil Holst, University of Bergen, is a senior author of an article in the journal. She added: “One of the main strategies of hunting on polar bears is” still hunting “, where they were still lying next to a breathing hole on sea ice waiting for the seal to the surface. Still hunting” water stem “with polar bear using the rear Paws to slide into the water to follow their prey and the lower the ice adhesion, the less noise is made, the faster and the quieter it is.

“Our discoveries also help us to understand the subtlety of steps that have taken people people to optimize the hunting strategies to mimic the method of still hunting for a polar bear. Inuit hunting chairs are sometimes demolished with a furly polar bear on our feet to avoid noise when moving on LED flow, while people sometimes wear “polar bear pants”, ensuring that the whole contact area with ice is covered with a low -ice fur fur for optimal noise reduction. “

Significantly, the traditional method of inait is protected by sebum on the fur, ensuring that the side of the skin covered with hair does not rinse. This is unlike, for example, the skin of the fox, which would traditionally be cleaned by rubbing hair with soap operas or dry clay.