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Defense against bacterial biofilms on boats

When I think of things that problematically attach themselves the bottom of boats, I usually think of barnacles.   But bacterial biofilms can also be a problem, and can make the substrate more attractive to larger organisms.

I saw an interesting story today on work focused on developing anti-fouling systems that aren’t toxic to the environment.  These are “active surfaces” which move in response to changes in voltage or temperature and someday might be able to “shake off slimy colonies of marine bacteria in a manner similar to how a horse might twitch its skin to shoo away flies” .

Boats on Tartus boat harbor

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David Coil

David Coil is a Project Scientist in the lab of Jonathan Eisen at UC Davis. David works at the intersection between research, education, and outreach in the areas of the microbiology of the built environment, microbial ecology, and bacterial genomics. Twitter

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