The conch shell is made of the same material as chalk, but unlike the crumbly rock, it's one of the toughest materials out there. If we can understand why it's so tough, we can mimic it to create nearly unbreakable materials that can be used for safety gear, and in construction, aerospace and other industries. Now, a team of researchers from MIT have developed a 3D printing technology that allowed them to duplicate the conch shell's structure and to test it more closely in the lab.
Conch shells have a complex, three-tiered structure with a zigzag matrix that makes them resistant to breakage. Small cracks don't typically lead to big ones, since they have to go through a maze to become bigger. However, to be able to replicate that quality, scientists need more data on how exactly cracks appear and spread.
That's why the team used the samples they printed to perform a series of drop tests. Since these samples are identical, unlike conch shells that have variations in quality, they gave the scientists a way to collect more accurate data. By the end of the testing period, the researchers were able to conclude that the shell's structure is 85 percent better at preventing cracks than the strongest base material and 70 percent better than a traditional fiber composite arrangement.
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:30AM (7 children)
Good God y'all
What is it good for?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:52AM (2 children)
This is military tech, do not appropriate, or-or-or I'll sue you for tech appropriation!
Civvies need to stick to their own lane :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:54AM (1 child)
Aw shucks, no cellphone cases made from artificial seashell.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:14PM
The hell with the case - I want a conch screen. You can lay it on a train track, let an engine pull 100 loaded cars over it, and you can still see through the screen.
Oh, wait. Everything behind the screen is smashed. On second thought, I'll take a conch case to protect the stuff behind my conch screen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:58AM
Absolutely nothing,
Say it again.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:03PM (2 children)
I'll see your war and raise you children.
Glass and ceramic plates, bowls and bottles are fragile. If parents let kids use them, a lot end up broken. Broken glass is dangerous!
Plastic is much more resistant to breakage, but it leaches nasty chemicals into the food. You don't want to poison your kids do you? If only there was some glass like substance that wasn't so brittle, something like a sea shell....
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:14PM (1 child)
coconut shell ? ? ?
.
(used to poach eggs in them on boy sprout 'survival' campouts)
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:37AM
Coconut? Nope. Think of the children who have nut allergies!
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday May 30 2017, @11:40AM (8 children)
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:47PM (7 children)
Maybe they will solve the NFL's concussion issue...
Solving that would mean removing the helmets completely, or going back to the leather caps, and ditching most of the body armor. The concussions happen because of their brains getting rattled, which is caused by getting hit hard, which happens only because the helmets protect the outside of the head and there are no pain sensors inside the brain to cause the players to complain and change the rules. The body armor protects the rest of the body, also allowing it to get hit and act like a lever with the head at the far end of that lever. Some tackles will generate over 30 G [popularmechanics.com] inside the skull very briefly. With repetition, that's just shredding the brain fiber from fiber. Over a 12 week season, the average is 652 impacts [umich.edu], the equivalent of smashing at sprinting speeds head first into a brick wall. If that were done the normal way, the outside would be pulped long early on. The padding and helmets prevent external damage and, again, the brain itself has no pain sensors.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:19PM (4 children)
Another reason to play rugby instead. Better cardio, and now with less brain damage! Also, much, much more beer. It's a no-brainer.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:31PM (1 child)
Amateur rugby, then. Because now that there's lots of money in the sport, the pros spend so much time juicing and becoming muscle monsters, that concussions and other injuries are becoming quite severe.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:55PM
Amateur rugby is my lens. I played it in college and grad school and the tackling style was much different than that used in American football. That's what I was thinking of.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:38PM (1 child)
I thought the major difference between rugby and American football, is that rugby players like the pain.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:58PM
That, too. But you never stop running, like in soccer, and the tackling style is different and less designed for blunt force trauma the way American football is. After the game there is obligatory beer. Lots and lots of beer. And songs. Horrible, horrible songs. Like filk-singing, but with less harmony and far more graphic.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:16PM
And over time the gloves have gotten heavier. Pros are using 10oz gloves these days I think? Much more padding than the old 2oz glove, so in addition to protecting the hand it's really adding dramatic amounts of weight to the hand as well. No more cut knuckles, but lots of people getting brain damage.
We should have stopped at bare knuckles, if you ask me.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:27PM
i think the nfl actually sees the long-term handwriting on the wall, is why they are doing the experimental flag football league...
just sayin'...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @01:22PM
bugbugbug
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:37PM (1 child)
The exciting for me about these materials is the ubiquity of their components. You don't need a mine or smelting operation to win them from the environment. Theoretically, anyone could manufacture components from these at home. The MIT researchers used 3D printing to re-create the conch's structure, and that's a manufacturing technique that's widely available (if not yet fully internalized by society). How fun would it to be to have furniture and appliances grown like coral, on a whim?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:09PM
According to the video in TFA, the MIT undergrads where printing with layered polymers. Where different layers where laid in different directions, with different directions and strengths. Pretty much the same technique as most modern composite boats are made.
In other words they weren't creating their samples from caulk, but from resins much like epoxy. Military helmets and football helmets are already made in a similar fashion using layers of carbon fiber and Kevlar within a resin that is formed under pressure and cured in an autoclave.
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