lignin
LIG-nin
Definition
A complex organic polymer deposited in the cell walls of many plants, which gives them rigidity and is a primary structural component of wood.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin word 'lignum,' meaning 'wood.' It was coined in the early 19th century to describe the substance that chemically defines woody tissue.
In the news
The article uses lignin to explain why shipwrecks usually decay; in oxygenated water, aerobic microbes consume lignin along with cellulose, but they cannot survive in the anoxic Black Sea to break these materials down.
At the bottom of the Black Sea, below about 150 metres, the water contains no oxygen at all, and shipwrecks preserved in that dead zone include a 2,400-year-old Greek merchant vessel found in 2018 with its mast, rudder and rowing benches still intact on the
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com