How many licks?

Headnote

Exploring the complex world of biotribocorrosion with basic tribological principles and an army of lollipop-lickers.

READERS OF THIS COLUMN DO NOT NEED TO BE TOLD THAT TRIBOLOGY IS A COMPLEX, MULTIDISCIPLINARY TOPIC. Blotribology and tribocorrosion bring with them even greater levels of complexity, while biotribocorrosion may seem like a lost cause when it comes to quantitative understanding and prediction. Nevertheless, the topic of biotribocorrosion is of great importance in applications ranging from implants to marine engineering.

A refreshingly original, potentially important and thoroughly entertaining article on a well-defined biotribocorrosion problem was recently published in Tribology Letters by a group from the University of Florida led by professor Greg Sawyer. The paper posed the question: "How many licks does it take to reach the center of a lollipop?"-specifically the soft core of a Tootsie-Pop. The researchers approached the problem armed with classical tribological methods, state-ofthe-art optical metrology equipment, Monte Carlo statistical modeling techniques and high school students who participated as volunteer llckers in an experiment during STLE's 2014 Annual Meeting STEM Camp last May.

One of the issues that has made quantitative studies of biotribocorrosion challenging has been the dual processes...