Chemists Crack Secrets of Mussels' Super Glue

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from Purdue University working under an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) have discovered that common blue mussels are using iron found in seawater to create their own super glue. "In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transport of invasive species, such as the zebra mussel that has ravaged the midwestern United States." This overview contains more details and references about this discovery. You'll also find an image of mussel glue at a magnification of 25,000X and one of a mussel adhering to a sheet of Teflon."

More links for the chemistry inclined

[chrestomanci]

This area of research is similar to what I did as a chemistry post graduate.

After a bit of googling, I found the researcher's home page:
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/Faculty/wilker.h tm

I also found the page for his research group. Linked from it, was a more detailed description of the chemistry involved:
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/wilker/adhes ives.htm

Unfortunately, while I could find a number of links to actual publications in peer-reviewed chemistry journals, all where subscription sites.

old news

[Anonymous Coward]

This was discovered by Sander Haemes 3 years ago [tudelft.nl].

Re:So...

[canajin56]

The topic says:
"In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transport of invasive species, such as the zebra mussel that has ravaged the midwestern United States."

You didn't even have to RTFA!

Zebra mussel info page

[slashd'oh]

More information about the zebra mussel can be found here:

The Zebra Mussel Page [wayne.edu]

The slide show link is informative. To quote: "Zebra mussels are a pest organism because they not only attach to one another, but also to man-made objects, including water intakes and other plumbing of water, power, and other companies that use fresh water. [snip] Zebra mussels also attach to other organisms, such as these native (North American) mussels from Lake Erie. Heavy loads of zebra mussels have killed essentially all native Unionid mussels in western Lake Erie, an early site of the zebra mussel invasion. Zebra mussels first appeared in Lake St. Clair (yellow star, north of Lake Erie), possibly from ship's ballast water from the Black Sea region. They rapidly spread downstream with the current, and upstream and to other watersheds on boats, with bait, and by other man-mediated mechanisms."

The National Atlas website has a nice Shockwave animation illustrating the invasion between 1988 and 1999:

Animated Map Showing Zebra Mussel Distribution [nationalatlas.gov]

That depends

[The Tyro]

On the oxidation state of the iron molecules. The glue dissolver might have to reduce the iron in order to break the bond. Iron is commonly found in the Fe2+ and Fe3+ oxidation states. If the iron molecules are in the Fe2+ state, then you would be correct.

There's a couple of easy mnemonics to remember the general RedOx rules:

OLEGON (Oxidation is Loss of Electrons and Gain in Oxidation Number)
or
LEO says GER (Loss of Electrons is Oxidation, Gain of Electrons is Reduction).

There's probably others, but basic chemistry was a looong time ago for me...

Re:old news

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you need to read the article. It describes the discovery that the mussel's use iron.. This isn't described at all in the article you linked.

Re:old news

[TheLink]

No mention of iron by that Sander Haemes article though.

Re:"ravaged"?

[cybermace5]

I had to live on the shore of Green Bay during the zebra mussel invasion. Billions upon billions died and washed ashore. The stench was unbelievable, and the shells formed dunes ranging from 3 to 8 feet, 60 feet out into where the water used to be, as far as you could see up and down the shoreline.

And the little buggers are so sharp. You can't swim anymore, when you feet touch bottom the mussels cut you. It's exactly like dozens of paper cuts on the soles of your feet.

Re:Prof Wilker - SCORE!

[Morgon]

'Good Looking' is extremely relative.

Myself, I find attraction to the second girl from the left, crouching down .. and the girl standing up all the way to the right. (So uh.. if either of them are reading Slashdot, and this post right now.. I'm available! ;))

Saw this presented...

[hiryuu]

...at an ASC [ascouncil.org] conference a year or so ago. Very well put-together presentation - I didn't read the article (yay typical /. behavior), so I'm going by my memory of the talk and slides

As I recall, the fella from Purdue had mentioned that the primary interest they were pursuing was to try and exploit the technology for a medical/surgical adhesive, but that a firm understanding of the chemical mechanism could be worth quite a bit to the US Navy, since estimates put fuel waste and inefficiency (due to increased drag on ships because of the molluscs attached to the hull) runs into the billions...

(As a funny aside, this guy was probably the only talk at the conference that really got people interested. There's only so much excitement to be had in glue. :P )

Re:Zebra mussel info page

[aethera]

They're small. I remember the desperate attempts to keep the zebra mussels out of Lake Ontario. When they did establish themselves, they came in droves. A single mussel is only about the size of a dime, with about an eraser head's worth of meat in them. But they die by the thousands, littering the beaches with their rotting carcasses and tons of glass sharp broken shells. Sometimes theylayer of shells and dead mussels on the beach would be 6 inches thick.

Re:Scary cleaning cycle..

[JPriest]

Zebra Mussels are good for cleaning water and polution. A high population of them is one of the reasons the St. Lawrence is one of the cleanest rivers in the world. I once heard a stat to the effect that they filter every galon of water in the river about every 2 or 3 days (not sure how true this is). I do know that each Zebra Mussel can filter about a quart of water per day. They are pests but they do lower water pollution levels.

Biomicmicry

[Quirk]

Janine M. Benyus in her book Biomimicry : Innovation Inspired by Nature [amazon.com] deals with the subject of mussells superglue and a host of others. It's a good read as a general intro to the work being done to derive new products and methodologies from mimicing nature.