1/17/2024 0 Comments Fake rhino 7 platinumAmong those working on the idea is the start-up Pembient, which is attempting to bioengineer fake horns that are genetically identical to the real thing. The latest study is not the first to look at the possibility of producing fake horns. “It is just rattling the market.” However, the team say it will be up to others to develop their idea. “ any punter who wants to spend 1,000 quid on a couple of grams says, ‘Wait a minute, what is my probability that my stuff is real or that it is just horse hair?’” said Vollrath. The team believe the development could lead to the rhino horn market being swamped with faux horns, thereby sowing confusion and causing a price crash – making it less profitable for poachers to source the real thing. “It appears from our investigation that it is rather easy, as well as cheap, to make a bio-inspired horn-like material that mimics the rhino’s extravagantly expensive tuft of nose hair,” the authors write. The upshot is a material that shows similar mechanical properties to the real deal, feels similar and even looks similar under a microscope. The resulting material, said Vollrath, can easily be moulded into a rhino horn shape, dried under vacuum in a hot oven and polished. ![]() Cellulose was also included in the artificial mix to resemble the plant material that is incorporated when the animal sharpens its horn. The “glue” used by the team was a silk-based substance they say emulates the materials that fulfil the role in real rhino horn. The team say they chose horse hair because the animal is a close cousin to the rhinoceros, while the hairs have similar dimensions to the keratin filaments – or hair – that the team say make up rhino horn. ![]() ![]() Now scientists say they have made a convincing fake rhino horn by gluing together the hair of a horse’s tail, stripped of its outer layer. Rhino horns are solid keratin and do not have a bone core. The horns of most animals, including cows, have a bony centre covered by a layer of keratin – the same protein that is found in our hair and fingernails.
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