JUNE 10,
2019
by Holly
Ober, University of
California - Riverside
How do you
protect yourself from the perfect striking weapon? You develop the perfect
shield.
If you're a mantis shrimp with a
clublike arm tough enough to crack clamshells, you'd better not get into any
fights with your pals. But the tiny crustaceans, among the ocean's feistiest
creatures, can't resist taking swipes at each other over habitat, so they
evolved a specialized shield in their tail segment called a telson that absorbs
the blows. The telson is a multiscale structure with ridges on the outside and
a structure shaped like a spiral staircase on the inside. It's inspiring a new
class of lightweight, impact-resistant materials for helmets, cars,
and more.
Research led
by David Kisailus, the Winston Chung Endowed Professor in Energy Innovation at
UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering; and Pablo
Zavattieri, a professor and University Faculty Scholar at Purdue's Lyles School
of Civil Engineering have unlocked the telson's secret—with an eye toward
creating better materials for sports, aerospace, and a multitude of other
applications.
Kisailus,
whose lab investigates biological composite structures as inspiration for new
materials, said a paper by Duke University's Sheila Patek about the telson's
ability to absorb energy, inspired him to investigate the role multiscale
architectural features have on impact resistance.
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