The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has achieved an important milestone towards understanding one of the most persistent species of marine biofouling: the barnacle.
Barnacles may not seem complex, but scientists have never been able to fully characterize the tough glue that sticks these small organisms to the hull of a ship. Some of the proteins in barnacle glue can be dissolved in solvents and analyzed, but some cannot – at least until this point.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory have now found a way to dissolve all of the glue and process multiple samples at the same time, allowing them to characterize twice as many glue proteins as in previous studies. Read on.
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