August 24

Avelin Mary Foils Fouling

On this day in 1998, Avelin Mary was named one of the "2,000 outstanding scientists of the 20th century" for her work in marine biology. She identified several species of soft coral in the Indian ocean that make chemicals that keep away common fouling organisms, such as barnacles. Fouling organisms are plants or animals that attach themselves to the bottom of ships. They keep the ship from gliding smoothly through the water, so the ship's engines have to work harder to move the ship.

Barnacles and other biological foulers increase the cost of a typical supertanker trip from the Middle East to North America by five to seven million dollars. Paint that contains heavy metals can be used to keep off the barnacles, but it causes environmental damage. Scientists hope Avelin Mary's research will lead to more environmentally safe methods of keeping barnacles, algae, mussels and other foulers off boats.