{"467991":{"#nid":"467991","#data":{"type":"news","title":"A Hairy Situation: Hair Increases Surface Area for Animals by 100 Times","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology researchers combed through more than two dozen studies and did surface measurements for 27 mammals and insects to better understand \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AdpLDyb0G_I\u0022\u003Ehow animals are able to clean themselves\u003C\/a\u003E. The findings could have implications for keeping manmade structures \u2013 such as sensors, robots and unmanned aerial vehicles \u2013 free from pollutants, pollen and dirt. The review study is \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/jeb.biologists.org\/content\/218\/20\/3164\u0022\u003Epublished in the Journal of Experimental Biology\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research team focused on the many ways hair allows animals to both get dirty and remain dirt-free. The researchers found that a honeybee has the same amount of hairs as a squirrel: 3 million. That\u2019s nothing compared to butterflies and moths \u2013 each have nearly 10 billion hairs. The human head, as a comparison, has just 100,000.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAnimals likely evolved with hair in order to stay warm. But it also brings a burden,\u201d said David Hu, a Georgia Tech associate professor who co-led the study. \u201cMore hair means more surface area that can trap dirt, dust and pollen.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHu and his mechanical engineering Ph.D. student, Guillermo Amador, ran calculations to find the true surface area of animals, or the surface area that includes every location where dirt can be collected. The hairier it is, the larger the creature\u2019s true surface area. In fact, the team says it\u2019s 100 times greater than its skin surface area.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA honeybee\u2019s true surface area is the size of a piece of toast,\u201d said Hu. \u201cA cat\u2019s is the size of a ping pong table. A sea otter has as much area as a professional hockey rink.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd with all that surface area comes the challenge of keeping away all the dirt. It turns out that animals use a variety of ways to stay clean. Some depend on non-renewable strategies and use their own energy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDogs shake water off their backs, just like a washing machine,\u201d said Amador, who recently graduated. \u201cBees use bristled appendages to brush pollen off their eyes and bodies. Fruit flies use hairs on their head and thorax to catapult dust off of them at accelerations of up to 500 times Earth\u2019s gravity.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther animals and insects use more efficient, renewable cleaning tactics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey don\u2019t do anything extra to stay clean. It just happens,\u201d said Amador.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEyelashes, for example, protect mammals by minimizing airflow and funneling particles away from eyes. Cicadas have sharp points on their wings that act as pincushions, essentially popping airborne bacteria like water balloons.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s these renewable cleaning tactics that have the Georgia Tech team thinking about applications for technology. \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cUnderstanding how biological systems, like eyelashes, prevent soiling by interacting with the environment can help inspire low-energy solutions for keeping sensitive equipment free from dust and dirt,\u201d said Hu. \u201cDrones and other autonomous rovers, including our machines on Mars, are susceptible to failure because of the accumulation of airborne particles.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study, \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/jeb.biologists.org\/content\/218\/20\/3164\u0022\u003ECleanliness is next to godliness: mechanisms for staying clean\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d appears in the current issue (Vol. 218\/Issue 20) of Journal of Experimental Biology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis work is partially funded by the National Science Foundation (PHY-1255127). Any conclusions expressed are those of the principal investigator and may not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Study classifies the many ways animals and insects clean themselves"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology researchers combed through more than two dozen studies and did surface measurements for 27 mammals and insects to better understand \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AdpLDyb0G_I\u0022\u003Ehow animals are able to clean themselves\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Because of hair, a cat\u0027s true surface area is the size of a ping pong table."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2015-11-09 23:01:01","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:58","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-11-09T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-11-09T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"468021":{"id":"468021","type":"image","title":"Cat","body":null,"created":"1449257147","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:25:47","changed":"1475895216","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:36","alt":"Cat","file":{"fid":"203810","name":"cat.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cat_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cat_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1443539,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/cat_0.jpg?itok=8YPZ3LlV"}},"467981":{"id":"467981","type":"image","title":"Animal\/Insect Comparisons","body":null,"created":"1449257147","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:25:47","changed":"1475895216","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:36","alt":"Animal\/Insect Comparisons","file":{"fid":"203809","name":"surface_area_comparisons-rv1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/surface_area_comparisons-rv1_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/surface_area_comparisons-rv1_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2412387,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/surface_area_comparisons-rv1_0.jpg?itok=QYjLPxb5"}}},"media_ids":["468021","467981"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"106021","name":"Animals"},{"id":"4809","name":"clean"},{"id":"297","name":"David Hu"},{"id":"14946","name":"insects"},{"id":"541","name":"Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"171501","name":"Self-Clean"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39471","name":"Materials"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2966\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}