Swiss chemists emulate cheese rind to create self-cleaning surface material
Monday, January 9, 2012 - 10:02
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Cheese lovers know that the milky white outer coating of Camembert cheese not only serves to offer a tart offset to the pungent inner cheese, but also protects it until ready to be eaten, much like plastic wrap does for other foods. Now, a group of Swiss researchers have taken this idea heart, and have created a sort of artificial rind. As they describe in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they have created a bio-sandwich of sorts using a type of cheese fungus to create a material that eats organic material that comes into contact with it.