New Deep Look Episode on Porcupine Quills! (Patreon)

Porcupines Give You 30,000 Reasons to Back Off | Deep Look

Porcupines may be adorable, but their quills are razor-sharp, designed to impale and next to impossible to remove. But it's not all bad news. Researchers are designing new surgical staples that mimic the quill's shape to better close wounds and speed up healing. SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt Please support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/deeplook DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. The quills of North American porcupines have microscopic backward-facing barbs on the tips. Those barbs make the quills slide in easy but very difficult to remove. Researchers at Harvard are looking to porcupine quills for inspiration in designing a new type of surgical staple that would also use tiny barbs to keep itself lodged into the patient’s skin. This would be advantageous because traditional staples curve in under the skin to keep the staple in place. This creates more damage on the way in and can provide a place for bacteria to infect the wound. --- What do porcupines eat? North American porcupines are herbivores. Their diet varies with the season but includes leaves, buds, acorns, fruit and tree bark. Porcupines don’t actually eat the bark itself but the living layer called cambium that grows underneath. --- How do porcupines defend themselves? If threatened, a porcupine will bristle, raising its quills. The quills are densest in an area on the porcupine's back called the rosette. The quills are coated in a grease secreted by the porcupine’s skin. When the porcupine exposes its quills it releases a musky odor unique to porcupines that serves as a warning. The porcupine turns so that it’s head faces away from the attacker and chatters its teeth to make an audible warning. If that’s not enough, he porcupine will use its muscular tail, covered in quills, to slap their attacker if they get too close. --- Do porcupines shoot their quills? Porcupines do not shoot their quills out. That’s a myth. Porcupine quills are held by their skin in a way that makes them difficult to fall out unless pushed in first, usually by contact with an attacker. The tail moves so quickly that it can appear that it is shooting the quills out. ---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science: https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2019/04/09/porcupines-give-you-30,000-reasons-to-back-off/ ---+ For more information: Professor Uldis Roze studies North American porcupines at Queens College at the City University of New York and has written books and articles about them. http://biology.qc.cuny.edu/people/faculty/dr-uldis-roze/ Dr. Jeff Karp is developing a new type of surgical staple inspired by the barbs on North American porcupine quills. http://www.karplab.net/portfolio-item/porcupine-inspired-needles ---+ More Great Deep Look episodes: How Lice Turn Your Hair Into Their Jungle Gym | Deep Look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb26BBvAAWU&list=PLdKlciEDdCQBpNSC7BIONruffF_ab4cqK&index=47 Take Two Leeches and Call Me in the Morning | Deep Look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-0SFWPLaII&list=PLdKlciEDdCQBpNSC7BIONruffF_ab4cqK&index=19 ---+ Shoutout! ---+ Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10+ per month)! Bill Cass, Justin Bull, Daniel Weinstein, Chris B Emrick, Karen Reynolds, Jeremy Lambert, David Deshpande, Daisuke Goto, Bugeyed.fr, WhatzGames, Elizabeth Ann Ditz, Robert Warner, Shirley Washburn, Tatianna Bartlett, KW, Tanya Finch, Elizabeth Wolden, Sayantan Dasgupta, Monica Albe, Willy Nursalim, Jenn's Bowtique, Jane Orbuch, Laurel Przybylski, Johnnyonnyful, Levi Cai, Jason Buberel, Mark Joshua Bernardo, Michael Mieczkowski, Jeanine Womble, Aurora Mitchell, Edwin Rivas, Marjorie D Miller, Companion Cube, Chris Murphy, Joao Ascensao, Two Box Fish, PM Daeley, TierZoo, Robert Amling, Shelley Pearson Cranshaw, Mario Rahmani ---+ Follow KQED Science and Deep Look: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deeplook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kqedscience/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kqedscience KQED Science on kqed.org: http://www.kqed.org/science Facebook Watch: https://www.facebook.com/DeepLookPBS/ ---+ About KQED KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio and web media. Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, which is also supported by the National Science Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Fuhs Family Foundation and the members of KQED.