Latest news with #JulianCarolan
CBC
15-02-2025
- Science
- CBC
Polar bears' greasy fur could hold the secret to ditching harmful forever chemicals, says researcher
Polar bears' greasy fur oil helps them repel ice, researchers say — and it may hold the key to helping humanity ditch harmful forever chemicals. So-called forever chemicals, or PFAs, can be found in common household items like non-stick cookware. They take thousands of years to break down by conventional methods and build up in the environment and in bodies. Polar hair oil has non-stick qualities that come without the harmful environmental impacts. Essentially, it's Mother Nature's Teflon. "We found that when you had unwashed, greasy polar bear fur, it didn't stick that strongly at all," said Julian Carolan, a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin, who worked on the project. While other animals and human hair secretes oils, he said polar bears hair oil is different and fattier. "It's a little more specialized for their cold, icy environment," Carolan said. The research team used computational models to look at how the polar bear grease components interacted with ice. "We found that some of the components that are really abundant in polar bear oils, like the long fatty acids and the cholesterols, stick very weakly to ice — at least in the simulated model," he said. In fact, Carolan said they had a similar weakness to forever chemicals that are used to reduce ice adhesion. "A really impressive performance, to see this natural example do as well as the ... synthetic and environmentally unfriendly standard," said Carolan. It could take time, though, before polar bear grease — or a comparable man-made analog — replaces forever chemicals. "It'll be kind of dependent on the application. We'd want to really avoid [it] in places where maybe these waxes and fluorinated waxes get into the environment," he said. "But it will be sort of one step at a time. How best to use these? Do they need to be waxed onto a surface? Do they need to be chemically bonded to the surface?" he said. For science Carolan said the team carried out experiments on how well ice stuck to polar bear fur by measuring the strength it took to remove it from the ice. "It was clear from this experiment that the polar bear hair oils have an important influence on stopping ice from sticking to the polar bear, allowed it to stay ice-free in the Arctic," he said. Carolan added that as part of the experiment, he refrained from washing his hair for a week so the researchers would have something to compare to polar bear fur. "It sort of became long greasy strands and then shaved it all off and used that as comparison. And we found that human hair, washed and unwashed, stuck very strongly to the ice, similar to the washed polar bear." He added it was an awkward time to shave his head, as it was in the cold month of January, "But needs must for science," he said. The results made the team wonder what was so special about polar bear grease, said Carolan, so they brought in experts in oil and fat and got new samples of polar bear hair oil that were collected by the researchers on the team who worked for the Norwegian Polar Institute. From there, he said they determined the oil's exact composition and found it was complex. "We found that polar bear hair was very fatty, much faster than human and other mammals that have been studied. We found in particular an abundance of this cholesterol, cholest-5-en-3-beta-ol, as well as other fatty compounds." That makes sense, he said, since polar bears have a fatty diet.
BBC News
30-01-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Polar bears: How a greasy coat makes sure ice doesn't stick to them
Polar bears are able to survive in some of the world's harshest scientists think they know how they move around the ice without it getting stuck to them all the time. The secret? Well, it's the grease on their just the tip of the iceberg, as the discovery, which is published in the Science Advances journal, could be used to create more anti-icing products and to help make better skiing and snowboarding equipment. How did scientists discover the greasy polar bear fur? It all came down to some detective work, which involved collecting hair from six polar bears in the wild. The researchers found the sebum, or grease, on the hair was the important thing protecting it. The grease is made up of cholesterol and fatty acids, which makes it very hard for ice to attach to their measured things like how well the ice sticks to fur, whether water can be shed before it freezes, and how long it took for a drop of water to freeze at certain temperatures on a surface. They then compared the polar bear hair with human hair and two types of specialist 'ski skins' - strips that attach to skis and snowboards so they don't slip backwards. Julian Carolan, from Trinity College Dublin's School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre, co-wrote the journal article. He said: "Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast when the polar bear hair was washed and the grease largely removed, it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks easily whether it is washed or greasy."So the greasier the hair the better!This isn't the first time animals living in polar habitats have inspired humans to get de-icing. Scientists also discovered the feather structure of Gentoo penguins have anti-icing properties.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Polar bears are greasier than you think. Here's why
Polar bears might be greasier than widely believed. The bears' greasy fur is the secret to the popular species' survival in one of Earth's most punishing climates. The grease, also known as sebum, is made up of cholesterol, fatty acids and compounds that make it hard for ice to attach to the animals' fur. 'The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect, as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed,' Trinity College Dublin PhD candidate Julian Carolan said in a statement following new research. 'Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast, when the polar bear fur was washed and the grease largely removed it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks easily whether it is washed or greasy,' he explained. Carolan is the first author of the new research, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. A group of international researchers analyzed the fur of six wild polar bears. They then performed a chemical analysis of the grease. In addition, they measured how well ice sticks to fur, whether water can be shed before it freezes, and how long it takes for water to freeze at temperatures on a given surface, comparing the performance of polar bear fur to human hair and specialist human-made 'skins.' The analysis revealed a surprise: Polar bear sebum did not have an ingredient found in human hair and in the hair of other aquatic animals, like sea otters. The finding suggests sebum's presence in polar bears is very important from an anti-icing perspective, they said, shedding new light on our understanding of the species. 'This work not only represents the first study of the composition of polar bear fur sebum, but it also resolves the question of why polar bears don't suffer from ice accumulation,' noted assistant Professor Dr. Richard Hobbs, who is also a Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University research fellow in Trinity's School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre. In the future, Hobbs, the senior author of the journal article, said the sebum could help humans to develop anti-icing coats that could replace toxic 'forever chemicals' like PFAS.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Polar bears are greasier than you think. Here's why
Polar bears might be greasier than widely believed. The bears' greasy fur is the secret to the popular species' survival in one of Earth's most punishing climates. The grease, also known as sebum, is made up of cholesterol, fatty acids and compounds that make it hard for ice to attach to the animals' fur. 'The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect, as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed,' Trinity College Dublin PhD candidate Julian Carolan said in a statement following new research. 'Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast, when the polar bear fur was washed and the grease largely removed it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks easily whether it is washed or greasy,' he explained. Carolan is the first author of the new research, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. A group of international researchers analyzed the fur of six wild polar bears. They then performed a chemical analysis of the grease. In addition, they measured how well ice sticks to fur, whether water can be shed before it freezes, and how long it takes for water to freeze at temperatures on a given surface, comparing the performance of polar bear fur to human hair and specialist human-made 'skins.' The analysis revealed a surprise: Polar bear sebum did not have an ingredient found in human hair and in the hair of other aquatic animals, like sea otters. The finding suggests sebum's presence in polar bears is very important from an anti-icing perspective, they said, shedding new light on our understanding of the species. 'This work not only represents the first study of the composition of polar bear fur sebum, but it also resolves the question of why polar bears don't suffer from ice accumulation,' noted assistant Professor Dr. Richard Hobbs, who is also a Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University research fellow in Trinity's School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre. In the future, Hobbs, the senior author of the journal article, said the sebum could help humans to develop anti-icing coats that could replace toxic 'forever chemicals' like PFAS.
The Independent
29-01-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Polar bears are greasier than you think. Here's why
Polar bears might be greasier than widely believed. The bears' greasy fur is the secret to the popular species' survival in one of Earth's most punishing climates. The grease, also known as sebum, is made up of cholesterol, fatty acids and compounds that make it hard for ice to attach to the animals' fur. 'The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect, as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed,' Trinity College Dublin PhD candidate Julian Carolan said in a statement following new research. 'Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast, when the polar bear fur was washed and the grease largely removed it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks easily whether it is washed or greasy,' he explained. Carolan is the first author of the new research, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. A group of international researchers analyzed the fur of six wild polar bears. They then performed a chemical analysis of the grease. In addition, they measured how well ice sticks to fur, whether water can be shed before it freezes, and how long it takes for water to freeze at temperatures on a given surface, comparing the performance of polar bear fur to human hair and specialist human-made 'skins.' The analysis revealed a surprise: Polar bear sebum did not have an ingredient found in human hair and in the hair of other aquatic animals, like sea otters. The finding suggests sebum's presence in polar bears is very important from an anti-icing perspective, they said, shedding new light on our understanding of the species. 'This work not only represents the first study of the composition of polar bear fur sebum, but it also resolves the question of why polar bears don't suffer from ice accumulation,' noted assistant Professor Dr. Richard Hobbs, who is also a Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University research fellow in Trinity's School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre. In the future, Hobbs, the senior author of the journal article, said the sebum could help humans to develop anti-icing coats that could replace toxic 'forever chemicals' like PFAS.
