Copper lined vest to help penguins with recovery | Hacker News Reader

Copper lined vest to help penguins with recovery

apnews.com

66 pointsninju20 comments

> an unlikely new garment for injured penguins — snug red vests threaded with copper and zinc that they hope will help the aquatic birds heal faster.

Ointments with zinc oxide and with basic carbonates of copper were already frequently used in the Greek-Roman Antiquity.

For instance Pliny the Elder described their medicinal uses.

Pure metallic zinc was unknown in the Antiquity, but brass, i.e. the copper-zinc alloy, was in widespread use in the Roman Empire, for various items that were intended to be resistant to rust, e.g. for belt buckles. When brass was smelted, some of the zinc evaporated and it was oxidized by the air, then it condensated as white zinc oxide on the colder parts of the installation, from where it was collected and sold to medicine doctors, for the preparation of medicinal ointments.

The basic carbonates of copper are the green corrosion products that cover copper and bronze objects that are exposed to the atmosphere. In Antiquity, that corroded layer was removed and used in the preparation of ointments.

Is there any equivalent to this in human medicine? Copper-and-zinc-infused hydrocolloid bandages, perhaps?

BPC-157 shots

more like GHK-CU, or even just zinc salves (common for babies)

When I was young, in Europe, there was some ointment made of cod liver oil and zinc oxide, which was extremely effective for the quick healing of non-infected wounds or burns.

For some reason nowadays, that ointment does not exist any more. There still are a lot of ointments containing zinc oxide, but they have different recipes, with more dubious fatty ingredients (I suppose that cod liver oil is more expensive than the fatty substances used now, which is the likely reason for its substitution), and they are less effective than the old one, but they can still accelerate healing in various skin injuries.

>For some reason nowadays, that ointment does not exist any more.

<tinfoil_hat> big pharma? </tinfoil_hat>

Maybe tinfoil hats can do something similar to the copper vests?

You can still buy the cod liver zinc oxide cream in Germany for "equestrian" usage.

Using a vest is probably more fashionable than the cone of shame that other pets get

Pets get a cone of shame in order to help wounds heal faster? I thought the cone of shame was to prevent biting/picking at the wound.

The article says penguins have long necks and are quite flexible so they can bendy around and bite peck at their wounds too. No mention of a cone of shame but the vests do look adorable too and have added microbial benefits.

If there was a vest covering the wound so the pet couldn't pick at it, would the pet need the cone of shame to not pick at the wound?

Evidence it works: This was planted by some company that sells copper nostrums.

D bi itj fæst ut’n sinkvæst

Underrated comment :) Though not unexpected given only about 0.007% of the world's population have a chance at getting the reference.

It's not a coincidence that this miracle is only being done on animals, where the legal protections of medicine are less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized_jewelry

Copper is a well known antimicrobial and copper paint is used on ship hulls as an anti-fouling layer.

"Contact killing" is real [1]. A copper ring will definitely kill some bacteria/virus on the skin immediately near where they touch. Related, most copper solutions are considered hazardous waste.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3067274/

Yes, penguin conservationists do this to scam the penguins... You didn't really think that one through did you.

You don’t see a lot of people walking around with E-collars either, but it’s not a conspiracy.

People are just way better about not biting or licking their wounds.

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