Porcupine Quills Reveal Their Prickly Secrets - Science | AAAS
Dec 10, 2012 · To pierce your skin, a porcupine quill needs only about half the force of a hypodermic needle, according to a new study. The work, which also explains why the quills are so hard to remove, could improve the design of a variety of medical instruments, from devices that poke us to those that help keep wounds shut.
Porcupine - Wikipedia
A porcupine is any of 30 species of rodents belonging to the families Erethizontidae (genera: Coendou, Erethizon, and Chaetomys) or Hystricidae (genera: Atherurus, Hystrix, and Trichys). Porcupines vary in size considerably: Rothschild's porcupine of South America weighs less than a kilogram (2.2 lb); the crested porcupine found in Italy ...
Porcupine Barbs For Better Wound Healing - NPR
Apr 9, 2019 · At first, the idea of using porcupine quills to patch up wounds sounds torturous. But, taking inspiration from the spiky rodent, researchers have begun to work on a new type of surgical staple...
More Than Sharp: The Science of Porcupine Quills
Dec 10, 2012 · New research shows that the sharp quills of the North American porcupine have tips that are covered in backward-facing barbs that make them much tougher to remove.
Inspiration from a porcupine’s quills - MIT News
Dec 10, 2012 · Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital now hope to exploit the porcupine quill’s unique properties to develop new types of adhesives, needles and other medical devices. In a new study, the researchers characterized, for the first time, the forces needed for quills to enter and exit the skin.
Porcupine Barbs For Better Wound Healing - Colorado Public …
Apr 9, 2019 · At first, the idea of using porcupine quills to patch up wounds sounds torturous. But, taking inspiration from the spiky rodent, researchers have begun to work on a new type of surgical staple...
Could Porcupine Quills Help Us Design the Next Hypodermic Needle?
Dec 10, 2012 · Could Porcupine Quills Help Us Design the Next Hypodermic Needle? Microscopic barbs allow porcupine quills to slice into flesh easily and stay there stubbornly—qualities that could prove...
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have uncovered how North American porcupine quills easily penetrate tissues and why, once lodged in flesh, they are often difficult to remove.
Porcupine Quills Inspire Better Needles | Science News
Dec 15, 2012 · Porcupine quills penetrate skin better than a hypodermic needle because of tiny backwards-facing barbs at their tips, which also render the quills very difficult to pull back out. This trick could now inspire better medical equipment such as needles and tissue adhesives.
Porcupine Quills Inspire Better Needles - Scientific American
Dec 10, 2012 · Porcupines sport some 30,000 quills, which easily penetrate flesh—and then stay stuck in it. Now, scientists have analyzed the shape of individual quills to discover what makes them so...