BIOTECHNOLOGY: Washing with Detergents

Characterizing the Effects of Washing by Different Detergents on the Wavelength-Scale Microstructures of Silk Samples Using Mueller Matrix Polarimetry

Silk fibers suffer from microstructural changes due to various external environmental conditions including daily washings. In this paper, we take the backscattering Mueller matrix images of silk samples for non-destructive and real-time quantitative characterization of the wavelength-scale microstructure and examination of the effects of washing by different detergents. The 2D images of the 16 ...

Quantification of Detergents Complexed with Membrane Proteins

Most membrane proteins studies require the use of detergents, but because of the lack of a general, accurate and rapid method to quantify them, many uncertainties remain that hamper proper functional and structural data analyses. To solve this problem, we propose a method based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) that allows quantification of pure or ...

Divers’ Detergents Are Different

As anyone who has ever blown bubbles as or with a child knows, if you stop blowing before the sphere is complete, it collapses and disappears. The gas exchange surfaces of our lungs, the alveoli, are also highly curved, thin-walled, moist membranes that are open to the atmosphere. They too, would tend to go poof! and disappear, save for a mixture of phospholipids and proteins that lines the epi...

Action of Synthetic Detergents

The bactericidal and bacteriostatic actions of soaps have been recognized for many years. Detailed studies by Eggerth (1) on the germicidal action of soaps have shown the importance of such factors as length of hydrocarbon chain, chemical configuration, effect of hydrogen ion concentration, effect of serum, etc. Avery (2) demonstrated the selective germicidal action of soap on microorganisms, a...

Green Washing