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the quill's shape to better close wounds and promote healing. Check out PBS Sound Field! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvMLMyKPomE6kTTL9Kv8Iww Meet Seth Samuel, Deep Look Composer! https://www.patreon.com/posts/25828498 SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. 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 helps because traditional staples curve in under the skin to keep the staple in place. This creates more damage and can provide a place for bacteria to infect the wound. --- 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: 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! Congratulations to 🏆Snowcube94, Marley Kang, Mr Spooks, David Bouslov, and NonEuclideanDreams🏆, who were the first to correctly ID the muscle (arrector pili) and a scientific name for the phenomenon known as goose bumps (piloerection, horripilation, or cutis anserina), over at the Deep Look Community Tab: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3SbfTPJsL8fJAPKiVqBLg/community?lb=Ugyape2VJb97x8bM77B4AaABCQ ---+ 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.