Salt pumps protect leaky toads when replacing skin

Replacing Gas-Assisted Glycol Pumps with Electric Pumps

Gas-assisted pumps are the most common circulation pumps in remote areas that do not have an electrical power supply. They are basically pneumatic gas driven pumps, specially designed to take advantage of the energy of high-pressure natural gas entrained in the rich (wet) TEG leaving the gas contactor. Additional high-pressure wet production gas is necessary for mechanical advantage, and theref...

Behavioral and neural responses of toads to salt solutions correlate with basolateral membrane potential of epidermal cells of the skin.

Dehydrated toads initiated water absorption response (WR) behavior and absorbed water from dilute NaCl solutions. With 200-250 mM NaCl, WR behavior and water absorption were both suppressed. With 200-250 mM Na-gluconate, WR initiation was significantly greater than with NaCl but water loss was greater. Neural recordings from spinal nerve #6 showed a greater integrated response to 250 mM NaCl th...

Smart Skin Patterns Protect Springtails

Springtails, arthropods who live in soil, in decaying material, and on plants, have adapted to demanding conditions by evolving extremely effective and robust anti-adhesive skin patterns. However, details of these unique properties and their structural basis are still unknown. Here we demonstrate that collembolan skin can resist wetting by many organic liquids and at elevated pressures. We show...

Protect the skin you are in.

When Skin Damage Causes Death

Our skin routinely shields us from microbes, allergens, and other environmental assaults, a yeoman’s service we often take for granted—until that barrier is breached. In response to injury, be it a simple cut or a deep wound, keratinocytes, the cells that form the epidermal layer, proliferate and dispatch chemical messengers to enlist the healing services of immune cells. But new research shows...