• the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I came here hoping to read more about this worm and its slime guns but no one did much yet so i had to look it up and now I’ve become the commenter i hoped to find? I hope the mildly interested people following after me find this cool:

    The slime is incredible stuff. It leaves the worm’s nozzles as twin streams of sticky liquid. But once it touches the target, it hardens almost immediately into a stiff, hard gel that is neither sticky nor soluble in water. It’s an incredible transformation and for the prey, it’s a fatal one. By ‘milking’ an Australian velvet worm called Euperipatoides rowelli and studying its slime, Haritos has discovered that its properties come from a special type of chaotic protein.

    Chaos Bolt! Man this worm is cool.

    National geographic (2 minute read)

    • pancakes@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Thank you for being the commenter you hoped to find but couldn’t and are instead the commenter i hoped to find and did.

    • blackbrook
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      20 days ago

      What makes it harden? Is it nonnewtonian? Does it impale its prey?

      • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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        20 days ago

        Its been a bit since i read it now but i think hitting the air makes it dry very quickly (something having to do with the chaotic shape of the proteins in the “beam”). Its a quick read if you want to check my memory