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Three penguins wearing copper vests (d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/pics@lemmy.world
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These penguins are wearing actual penguin suits, but they're more about the substance than style. Penguins are facing planetary perils, and these special vests are designed to help.

In Chile, injured penguins are swimming, eating, and shimmying in them. The cocoon of red fabric is woven with healing minerals, copper, which helps prevent bacteria and fungi from growing, and zinc, which encourages new blood vessels to form. Together, they can repair damaged tissue more quickly.

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[–] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

I'm not sure if that's overstated, it's news to me too. I'm aware of zinc as a skin-healing treatment, and it has a vasodilation effect through (I believe) topical application, so perhaps that's being mis-stated (or that lends credence to promoting growth).

I did find this from a quick search.

The rabbit hole beckons - off I go.

Copper is a well-known anti-microbial.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    In Orlando, they built the Dr Philips Performing Arts Center, and the handrails on the steps are all copper pipes, to control microbes. I noticed it the first time I went there, and thought it was a great idea.

    I was going to suggest they do it in the NYC subways, but the crackheads would steal the cooper rails within minutes of installation.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    That’s why old fashioned door handles are brass: it has similar qualities (which people realized wayyyyyy before germ theory).

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    I’m pretty sure brass was used because it was durable and stayed smooth to the touch in the elements unlike wrought iron, I don’t think they were trying to prevent the spread of disease

    I wish the history of regular household stuff was better recorded

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Copper and silver both. We need more unvarnished brass doorknobs in our lives!

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    But Kwikset has Microban™ coating on their doorknobs! Surely you would rather have a thin layer of chemical coating that totally won't come off and give you cancer and the production of which absolutely doesn't poison fresh water. Why do you want giant corporations to have to spend extra money making doorknobs out of brass when they can use aluminum alloys, white-metal, dog leavings, and snot instead?

    (I have no evidence Microban™ uses carcinogenic products, nor that its production pollutes the environment. I only have *gestures broadly at 300 years of industrialization and its affects* all of that)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    IIRC Microban and related treatments work by coating the surface in nano sized spikes that puncture bacteria's cell walls on contact. But the stuff is apparently not just one product, rather a range of products all lumped under that name with various compositions depending on what kind of surface they're intended to be applied to. Sometimes the little nano-teefies do indeed contain silver.

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