#viscoelasticity — Public Fediverse posts

Snails Tune Their Slime

Snails have a mucus for every occasion. The grove snail/lemon snail makes five different varieties: one for lubricating its motion, one for adhering to surfaces, one to seal it in its shell for winter, and two to protect against predators. A new study looks at how those different types of mucus differ.

The basic building blocks of a snail’s mucus don’t vary much. It’s mostly water, spiked with proteins and carbohydrates that give it its complex properties. For the grove snail, collogen VI acts as the main structural component and amorphous calcium carbonate gets added in varying amounts during secretion. By tuning the amount of protein and added calcium, the snails tweak their mucus’ viscoelasticity for each purpose. (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; research credit: M. Gabler et al.; via Ars Technica)

Snails Tune Their Slime

Snails have a mucus for every occasion. The grove snail/lemon snail makes five different varieties: one for lubricating its motion, one for adhering to surfaces, one to seal it in its shell for winter, and two to protect against predators. A new study looks at how those different types of mucus differ.

The basic building blocks of a snail’s mucus don’t vary much. It’s mostly water, spiked with proteins and carbohydrates that give it its complex properties. For the grove snail, collogen VI acts as the main structural component and amorphous calcium carbonate gets added in varying amounts during secretion. By tuning the amount of protein and added calcium, the snails tweak their mucus’ viscoelasticity for each purpose. (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; research credit: M. Gabler et al.; via Ars Technica)

Snails Tune Their Slime

Snails have a mucus for every occasion. The grove snail/lemon snail makes five different varieties: one for lubricating its motion, one for adhering to surfaces, one to seal it in its shell for winter, and two to protect against predators. A new study looks at how those different types of mucus differ.

The basic building blocks of a snail’s mucus don’t vary much. It’s mostly water, spiked with proteins and carbohydrates that give it its complex properties. For the grove snail, collogen VI acts as the main structural component and amorphous calcium carbonate gets added in varying amounts during secretion. By tuning the amount of protein and added calcium, the snails tweak their mucus’ viscoelasticity for each purpose. (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; research credit: M. Gabler et al.; via Ars Technica)

Snails Tune Their Slime

Snails have a mucus for every occasion. The grove snail/lemon snail makes five different varieties: one for lubricating its motion, one for adhering to surfaces, one to seal it in its shell for winter, and two to protect against predators. A new study looks at how those different types of mucus differ.

The basic building blocks of a snail’s mucus don’t vary much. It’s mostly water, spiked with proteins and carbohydrates that give it its complex properties. For the grove snail, collogen VI acts as the main structural component and amorphous calcium carbonate gets added in varying amounts during secretion. By tuning the amount of protein and added calcium, the snails tweak their mucus’ viscoelasticity for each purpose. (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; research credit: M. Gabler et al.; via Ars Technica)

Snails Tune Their Slime

Snails have a mucus for every occasion. The grove snail/lemon snail makes five different varieties: one for lubricating its motion, one for adhering to surfaces, one to seal it in its shell for winter, and two to protect against predators. A new study looks at how those different types of mucus differ.

The basic building blocks of a snail’s mucus don’t vary much. It’s mostly water, spiked with proteins and carbohydrates that give it its complex properties. For the grove snail, collogen VI acts as the main structural component and amorphous calcium carbonate gets added in varying amounts during secretion. By tuning the amount of protein and added calcium, the snails tweak their mucus’ viscoelasticity for each purpose. (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; research credit: M. Gabler et al.; via Ars Technica)

Tides Widen Ice Cracks

When icebergs calve off of Arctic and Antarctic coastlines, it affects glacial flows upstream as well as local mixing between fresh- and seawater. A recent study points to ocean tides as a major factor in widening the ice cracks that lead to calving. The team built a simplified mathematical model of an ice shelf, taking into account the ice’s viscoelasticity, local tides, and winds. Then they compared the model’s predictions with satellite, GPS, and radar data of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf, where an iceberg the size of Greater London broke off in 2023.

Between their model and the observation data, the team was able to show that the crack that preceded calving consistently grew during the spring tides, when tidal forces were at their strongest. The work gives us one more clue for refining our predictions of when major calving events are likely. (Image and research credit: O. Marsh et al.; via Gizmodo)

#calving #fluidDynamics #iceShelf #iceberg #oceanTides #physics #science #viscoelasticity