The Uses of Biology Ahh...there's nothing like lounging around in your favorite pair of jeans, reading up on some biology. It's hard to believe that annual sales of jeans like yours make up part of a $700 Billion global industry! Yup, jeans are BIG business these days. In 1999, over 200 million pairs were sold in Europe alone. In the US, jeans are an even hotter commodity, with about a dozen pairs flying off the shelves every second Image].
Regardless of the color or style, chances are your jeans were subjected to some sort of wash treatment to give the fabric a softer, smoother feel. Most of us are familiar with "stone washed" jeans. As the name implies, freshly dyed jeans are loaded into large washing machines and tumbled with stones. Adding pumice stones gives the additional effect of a faded or worn look. The pumice abrades the surface of the jeans like sandpaper, removing some dye particles from the surfaces of the yarn. Pumice has been used since the introduction of stone washed jeans in the early 1980s. However, stone washing with pumice has some severe drawbacks. The quality of the abrasion process is difficult to control: Too little will not give the desired look. Too much can damage the fabric, particularly at the hems and waistbands. The outcome of a load of jeans is never uniform, with a significant percentage always getting ruined by too much abrasion. The proc...
... middle of paper ...
...actly what biology is good for.
References and More Information
Biozyme International Pvt.Ltd , enzymes.co.uk, Canada's Business and Consumer Site , David Rigby Associates, Genencor, EnzyTex , Business Communications Company , Research Reporter , Dyadic International, Inc., UNX, Inc. Flo-Jeans System., Copyright Elbert T. Chen, 2001
The text of this "What is Biology Good For" exercise is copyrighted under the name of Dr. Kathleen A. Marrs, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003. There are no restrictions on its use by educators or by non-profit institutions as long as its content not modified, proper copyright acknowledgement is retained, and this statement is not removed.
Regardless of the color or style, chances are your jeans were subjected to some sort of wash treatment to give the fabric a softer, smoother feel. Most of us are familiar with "stone washed" jeans. As the name implies, freshly dyed jeans are loaded into large washing machines and tumbled with stones. Adding pumice stones gives the additional effect of a faded or worn look. The pumice abrades the surface of the jeans like sandpaper, removing some dye particles from the surfaces of the yarn. Pumice has been used since the introduction of stone washed jeans in the early 1980s. However, stone washing with pumice has some severe drawbacks. The quality of the abrasion process is difficult to control: Too little will not give the desired look. Too much can damage the fabric, particularly at the hems and waistbands. The outcome of a load of jeans is never uniform, with a significant percentage always getting ruined by too much abrasion. The proc...
... middle of paper ...
...actly what biology is good for.
References and More Information
Biozyme International Pvt.Ltd , enzymes.co.uk, Canada's Business and Consumer Site , David Rigby Associates, Genencor, EnzyTex , Business Communications Company , Research Reporter , Dyadic International, Inc., UNX, Inc. Flo-Jeans System., Copyright Elbert T. Chen, 2001
The text of this "What is Biology Good For" exercise is copyrighted under the name of Dr. Kathleen A. Marrs, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003. There are no restrictions on its use by educators or by non-profit institutions as long as its content not modified, proper copyright acknowledgement is retained, and this statement is not removed.