Goo solves sticky seaside problem

SCIENTISTS are getting stuck into efforts to better forecast coastal changes – using “goo”.

Normally researchers use real sand to replicate conditions found in estuaries in experiments, then add in a theoretical calculation to represent mud.

Now a team led by Prof Dan Parsons at the University of Hull is adding goo in the form of xanthum gum – used in chewing gum – to sand and mud before mixing it up in a cement mixer, and putting it into a simulator at The Deep, in Hull.

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He said: “Just 2kg of gum in six tonnes of sediment and we go from the ripples on the seabed you’ll see in Bridlington Bay to a completely flat bed that doesn’t change. The big difference is not the amount of sand or mud, but the very small amount of biological ingredient.”

The aim is to reduce uncertainty in predictive models. “This is why these predictions get a bad Press,” he added. “They are not underpinned by some fundamental physics.”

The three-year project is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

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