Unique adaptations allow wild animals to survive temperature extremes that would quickly kill an unprotected human. For example, certain animals can withstand bitterly cold weather, thanks to the insulating properties of the hollow hairs that make up their coats.
Unique adaptations allow wild animals to survive temperature extremes that would quickly kill an unprotected human. For example, certain animals can withstand bitterly cold weather, thanks to the insulating properties of the hollow hairs that make up their coats.
Little has been known about these hairs, but now researchers have discovered that their inner structure changes with the seasons. The researchers will present their results today (March 17) at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
„With some animals, the coat looks different in summer and winter,“ says Taylor Millett, who is carrying out the research. A snowshoe hare turns white in winter and brown in summer, for instance. „But in the animals we’re studying, we’ve found that it’s not just the outer coloring of the hair that’s changing. The inner microscopic details are also changing to allow these animals to continue surviving in their environment.“
Millett, an undergraduate student in the mechanical engineering program at Utah Tech University, is being mentored by Wendy Schatzberg, an associate chemistry professor, and Samuel Tobler, a physics professor. Cristina De La Vieja Medina is another undergraduate working on the project.
Schatzberg and Tobler teach undergraduate students to use a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which bombards a sample with electrons to produce an image that clearly reveals microscopic details.
