Snake’s belly owes its slipperiness to fatty layer
OCT 21, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029307
BBC : To the human touch, a snake’s belly is noticeably more slippery than the rest of its body. The lower friction evidently helps the snake to slither over the ground. Now, thanks to research by Joe Baio of Oregon State University and his collaborators, the physical origin of the slipperiness may have been identified: an ordered layer of lipid molecules that sprout from scales that cover the snake’s underside. Lipid molecules are also found on the rest of the snake’s body, but they lack order. Just how order might promote lubrication is uncertain.
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
