No One Is Prepared for Hagfish Slime (2019) | Hacker News Reader

No One Is Prepared for Hagfish Slime (2019)

theatlantic.com

177 pointscwwc61 comments

This is indeed astonishing: it seems you can dramatically change the mechanical properties of water with only trace amounts of a protein additive, measured in parts per million...

"Astonishingly, to create a liter of slime, a hagfish has to release only 40 milligrams of mucus and protein—1,000 times less dry material than human saliva contains. That’s why the slime, though strong and elastic enough to coat a hand, feels so incorporeal."

1 litre is 1kg of water = 1_000_000 milligrams. So 40mg is approximately 40 parts per million. Indeed, very impressive.

The protein is likely a bit denser than water (e.g. a steak sinks in water).

I participated in an ecological impact study off the coast of guam once upon a time and we pulled a couple of these up from the sea floor in deep sea traps ... the amount of slime covering the back deck was truly astonishing ... they also have really freaky mouths -- a circle of teeth on a squishy stalk reminiscent of the inner mouth from the movie Aliens ...

They are freakily alien. Hagfish and lampreys (the jawless fish) are in a separate group to all other vertebrates that split off before jaws evolved. Even weird fish like seahorses are more closely related to us than these creatures.

It's fascinating to me that these species have held on all this time, given that jaws were such a wildly successful adaptation.

The mouth reminds me more of the byrum (AKA “shitweasel”) from Dreamcatcher.

“Hagfish produce slime the way humans produce opinions—readily, swiftly, defensively, and prodigiously.”

They were voted the national fish of Norway, after some biology students organised to take over a phone-in radio contest :)

(Also, a slime researcher called "Fudge"? More evidence for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism !)

Anyone else wanted more on the car covered in slime on a highway?

https://twitter.com/ORStatePolice/status/885597812980711424

I kinda want more on why there exists a truckload of hagfish.

It says in the article:

> The animals were destined for South Korea, where they are eaten as a delicacy

I'm not sure I could cope with that. Getting in an accident with a truck is terrifying. But then to be washed over in fish slime?

Very interesting article with a silly clickbait title. Although I admit, the correct title, "Hagfish Slime is interesting," is probably less effective :D

At the end of the article there was mention of a fossil, and they seemed to imply that they retrieved chemical samples from it,did I miss something or is that a thing now?

Extracting DNA from fossils is actually a thing now, in certain extraordinarily rare circumstances. However, that's not the case here.

The genetic studies that the news piece mentioned were carried out in present-day hagfish and present-day vertebrates. The scientific contoversy is that some taxonomies based of genetics classified hagfish as a kind of vertebrate, while taxonomies based on other methods might classify them as a seperate branch of the tree which split off before vertebrates. What the new fossil showed is an example of an animal that appears to be a hagfish with some features that are characteristic of vertebrates. This is more in line with the theory that hagfish are a kind of vertebrate.

I think the poster above is referring to the observation in the article that they found traces of chemicals suggesting that the fossil had a similar slime to modern hagfish.

Proteins can be extraordinarily stable.

So what are some cool applications of this?

First aid for burns. Imagine an ointment tube of this that you could immediately apply to large burns then simply add water and create a sterile coverage for moisture retention under bandages

Spacecraft re-entry?

Firefighting gel

...of doom.

Space structures?

Intriguing, explain.

Not gp, but the protein structure implies the ability to fold materials and expand them really fast. It might be helpful in designing new space habitats. Alternatively, the proteins could be used to contain liquids in zero gravity. If you have a way to extract the proteins, you are left again with just water.

This probably wouldn't work. It's a biological system, so past a pretty tight temperature range the weak bonding forces of the protiens will denature, or lock up from the cold.

Rapid deployment of large structures in zero gravity?

I'm thinking Halloween prank.

Flat pack construction?

Currency?

Crypto slime hag tokens

I wonder if it could be used as a barrier in oil spills or other applications. Could be cheap, biodegradable and compact.

Some of my friends are implementing a blobchain using it.

Proof of Slime. I can see the headlines now: Sunk Cost - Blobchain Miner Cracks Foundation in Massive Slime Spill

As I was reading, I thought the article was about to answer this. I guess I have to add “No One is Prepared” to my mental clickbait filter now.

The way they talked about it expanding and it’s softness I thought it was a new crash absorption technology like in Demolition Man (the movie with Bullock, Stallone and Snipes) where it instantly fills the car

Probably industrial surface coatings, paints, epoxies, sealants, greases, etc where you need to obtain certain mechanical properties from the fluid using the least volume possible (because every bit of additive is displacing the product that does the real work).

Neat ideas! Perhaps engine oil?

Protein and heat.

The Maillard reaction?

Bearing lube?

Organic stuff doesn't tend to like non-earthly levels of heat so doubtful except maybe to add clingyness to some low temperature greases.

sea-bag for cars?

I kind of want to know what happens if you eat it. It probably puts psyllium husk to shame.

Nothing, that's what happens. The fish slime is almost entirely water, with only milligrams of protein in it, which you digest just as though you'd eaten a tiny bit of egg. Koreans eat quite a bit of hagfish. It's just seafood.

Psyllium fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate, usually consumed in quantities thousands of times greater than the amount of protein in fish slime.

I've been trying to get some of my friends to make hagfish jelly.

The US Navy has figured out a way to create the slime in a lab - https://newatlas.com/hagfish-slime-us-navy/47544/

They’re hoping to use it for shark repellent and ballistic defense.

I wonder if you could throw it in the water while running away from other ships or submarines; if you can gum up their propellors thats going to be pretty useful

Riot control maybe? A water cannon injecting this stuff into the stream would be intimidating.

Web like projectiles to grapple and swing around NYC sky scrapers?

Great article. But if you look at the videos, it is even more amazing. Chemical engineers dream. The microscopic view of the slime, appearing as thread in a bundle, is phenomenal. How? So much? So fast? What can we make with this knowledge?

> a bottlenose dolphin with a hagfish stuck in its blowhole

ugh ugh ugh

It's okay, the study followed up with the dolphin and found it to be healthy and no longer hosting a guest

I, for one, welcome our new airway clogging overlords.

Why is every weird fish a delicacy in Southeast/East Asia?

We got this poison puffer fish... delicacy

We got the fin off a dying shark... delicacy

We got this slime spewing eel thing... delicacy

That's not just an Asian thing. Fermented seafood delicacies from Scandinavia are even more counter-intuitive.

Lamprey, a related fish, is a delicacy in many places in Europe.

It's a good question. There are few things that are eaten in the West that aren't eaten in the East. Perhaps there is more readily available biodiversity in warmer lands / waters.

Perhaps food taboos did not evolve as much in the East because fresh food is readily available and food taboos are primarily in order to protect from parasites, etc.

Brood-X will start appearing in weeks ahead in Eastern US. BIG marketing opportunity.

Load up a firetruck of the stuff & use it for crowd control.

I am prepared.

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