A complex fish scale architecture that's impervious to piranha teeth could be mimicked to provide flexible composites with a hard ceramic surface for applications like body armor or prosthetics.
The architecture, revealed by a research team at the University of California, San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, includes a very hard exterior and a tough but flexible interior and helps the scales resist razor-sharp piranha teeth.
The Amazonian Arapaima gigas fish is the only animal that lives in the same environment as piranhas and doesn't get eaten by them. Its scales, which can measure up to four inches long, combine a heavily mineralized outer layer with a layered internal structure made of stretchy protein material.
Arapaima gigas scales have a highly mineralized outside layer and an internal layer
of collagen fibers stacked in a "plywood" formation for maximum toughness.
(Source: Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California, San Diego)
The research team, led by Marc Meyers, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, set up a lab experiment to study the Arapaima scale. The experiment used a sensor-equipped machine that resembles an industrial-strength hole punch. The researchers mounted piranha teeth on the top part of the punch. On the bottom part, the team placed Arapaima scales embedded in a soft rubber surface to emulate the fish's soft, underlying muscle.
When the top part of the punch was pressed down into the scales, the piranha teeth partly penetrated the scales but cracked before they could puncture the rubber.
Yes, Well-said Rob. Nature continues to offer us a myriad of new solution ideas. This topic also reminds me of the recent break-throughs in synthetic spider silk that I have been seeing in articles recently.
I agree Tool-maker. I saw a wonderful documentary some years ago that showed how some of our most common engineering solutions involved direct borrowing from nature's designs. A recent article in the The Guardian also covers the subject:
Rob, you have voiced what I thought as soon as I started reading the article. Here we go again trying to recreate and improve on what nature has already created. Not really a bad idea when it comes right down to it.
Pete, I think the difference is between whether animals are attacking each other under their own volition, i.e., in nature, or people are instigating their attacks on each other, i.e., two fish on a research lab, or two cocks or dogs fighting in a pit.
Good point, Jack, I would imagine there is a wide range of applications given the stab protection and the flexibility. Certainly this would have a wide range of useful military applications.
naperlou, thanks for the info on body armor. That basic structure sounds quite similar to the Arapaima scale architecture, although not including the fish scales' overlap. Lighter, stronger armor is definitely a target app for these experiments.
I think Pete is right: I doubt if a live show aired in the US could show the Arapaima getting attacked by a piranha, since it would violate cruelty to animals laws. That's probably one reason the researchers used a press with a piranha tooth "attacking" an Arapaima scale with muscle tissue simulated by rubber. Let alone the fact that either researchers or the people putting on River Monsters would have to wrestle both a piranha and a 300-lb Arapaima. But I haven't watched the show, so maybe that's all in a day's work for them.
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