Plant-Inspired Medicine: It’s Slippery and Sterile Bacterial defense inspired by meat-eating plants Many people think of bacteria as little round or rod-shaped swimmies, free-floating like plankton in the sea. But that’s not true of most bacteria in nature. Much of the time, they exist in dense, carbohydrate-rich colonies called biofilms. From the gunk inside your pipes to the plaque on your teeth, these bacterial goop fortresses are very common, and very tough. Antibiotics, heck, even bleach, have a hard time breaking through biofilms. And some of the dangerous bacteria that people fall victim to in hospitals use these biofilms to persist on tables, equipment and other surfaces. A Harvard group has developed a way to line those surfaces with a durable, safe material that is so slippery that even ice can’t grow on it. It’s called SLIPS, appropriately, because scientists will do anything to nail down a cool acronym. It’s inspired by the surface of the carnivorous pitcher plant, a frictionless micro-structure that makes its insect prey fall in and never come out. Same for the bacteria. It’s so slippery that even the toughest microbes can’t grow on it. Check out more of this nature-inspiring-technology story at Not Exactly Rocket Science. (pitcher plant illustration by SpaceHunterZorg)
Pop-upView Separately

Plant-Inspired Medicine: It’s Slippery and Sterile

Bacterial defense inspired by meat-eating plants

Many people think of bacteria as little round or rod-shaped swimmies, free-floating like plankton in the sea. But that’s not true of most bacteria in nature. Much of the time, they exist in dense, carbohydrate-rich colonies called biofilms. From the gunk inside your pipes to the plaque on your teeth, these bacterial goop fortresses are very common, and very tough.

Antibiotics, heck, even bleach, have a hard time breaking through biofilms. And some of the dangerous bacteria that people fall victim to in hospitals use these biofilms to persist on tables, equipment and other surfaces.

A Harvard group has developed a way to line those surfaces with a durable, safe material that is so slippery that even ice can’t grow on it. It’s called SLIPS, appropriately, because scientists will do anything to nail down a cool acronym. It’s inspired by the surface of the carnivorous pitcher plant, a frictionless micro-structure that makes its insect prey fall in and never come out. Same for the bacteria. It’s so slippery that even the toughest microbes can’t grow on it.

Check out more of this nature-inspiring-technology story at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

(pitcher plant illustration by SpaceHunterZorg)

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

151 Notes/ Hide

  1. notaparagon reblogged this from angeladellamuerta
  2. officially-whelmed reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. adistinguishedvillain reblogged this from scinerds
  4. lnwthoms reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. omega-tron-cat reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  6. odobenidae reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  7. imaspicygirl reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  8. otarsus reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  9. super-porn-gifs reblogged this from best-porn-gifs
  10. honaii29 reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  11. ffxiv-halvaard reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  12. squidofthemojave reblogged this from flappingphysicist
  13. flappingphysicist reblogged this from scinerds
  14. consciousuniverse reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  15. ixchelnaom reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  16. stormmccoy reblogged this from scinerds and added:
    [Image: Illustration of a group of pitcher plants and flies.]
  17. process-effect reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    This is awesome. I...my heart for carnivorous plants. Ever since I was
  18. urethaneandweedroller reblogged this from scinerds
  19. aristotlesaidso reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  20. jamieaxntran reblogged this from scinerds
  21. rexdemenum reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  22. angeladellamuerta reblogged this from theposhpanda
  23. heartt-breaker reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  24. phanny-marie reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    Increible! o_O
  25. thatgreenthumbguy420 reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  26. theexoticvet reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  27. my-anus-needs-a-black-penis reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  28. rasputinsgypsy reblogged this from jtotheizzoe

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus