Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Lobster's underbelly is as tough as industrial rubber (alt)
Flip a lobster on its back, and you'll see that the underside of its tail is split in segments connected by a translucent membrane that appears rather vulnerable when compared with the armor-like carapace that shields the rest of the crustacean.
But engineers at MIT and elsewhere have found that this soft membrane is surprisingly tough, with a microscopic, layered, plywood-like structure that makes it remarkably tolerant to scrapes and cuts. This deceptively tough film protects the lobster's belly as the animal scuttles across the rocky seafloor.
The membrane is also stretchy, to a degree, which enables the lobster to whip its tail back and forth, and makes it difficult for a predator to chew through the tail or pull it apart.
This flexibility may come from the fact that the membrane is a natural hydrogel, composed of 90 percent of water. Chitin, a fibrous material found in many shells and exoskeletons, makes up most of the rest.
The team's results show that the lobster membrane is the toughest material of all natural hydrogels, including collagen, animal skins, and natural rubber. The membrane is about as strong as industrial rubber composites, such as those used to make car tires, garden hoses, and conveyor belts.
The lobster's tough yet stretchy membrane could serve as a design guide for more flexible body armor, particularly for highly mobile regions of the body, such as elbows and knees.
Natural hydrogel in American lobster: A soft armor with high toughness and strength (DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.01.067) (DX)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:42AM
Lobster leader: "Totally fake news! We are softies under there, bigly softies, believe me! Rubber is really terrific, best stuff ever."
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:58AM
That my ex-wife was profoundly allergic to lobster, to periwinkles and to mussels was incredibly hard on her BECAUSE EVERY LAST RESIDENT OF HER ENTIRE VILLAGE was either a fisherman, the wife of a fisherman, or an fisherman's wife or an unmarried daughter of a fisherman that worked in the frozen-fish packing plant there.
Or perhaps they worked in the small, modestly older more-traditional order that sold quite a lot of it...
GRASS-FED ORGANIC FREE RANGE OSTRICH FILETS!
Had you going there for a while, eh wot?
Quite ironically as well as what causes for all who ever have so much as been to the South-East Newfoundland Burin Peninsula [google.com] as well those those who haven't been but who do have any real insight into the people, their culture, Newfoundlands well-over five hundred year history and the like the very worst kind of horror and inconsolable grief is that the very reason that each of mussels, lobster and periwinkles is their history of being eaten by the desperately-impoverished yet strangely proud, astonishingly happy, effusively happy and uncommonly helpful folk or "Outport" Newfoundland.
To be from "Around The Bay", I _think_ at first meant to have been from the shores that form the northern and easter bounds of Fortune Bay, the site of an epic, history-alternating and incredibly strategic Naval Battle between the British Empire and that of the French.
I never actually looked it up but I expect that Fortune Bay was quite a large piece of what I expect was a _global_ war between the two, which more or less took place around the same time as the French and Indian Wars upon the British Colonies.
Abolutely the _only_ possessions left the French in the _entire_ Ignorantly Mother Fucking Western Hemisphere was the _quite_ small Isle of St. Piere - which happily for its residence, as well as today's France - is quite prosperous as well as densely populated.
Immediately to one side of St. Pierre is Miquelon, which despite being quite a lot larger, with a gentle hill from the summit of which would be a good view of the surrounding sea, as barren of any populace. Surely there is some reason.
Despite my _never_ having regarded as their being any reason for any sort for Bonita to be untruthful to me, I frankly thought she was openly attempting to _bullshit_ me when she pointed out that each of St. Pierre and Miquelon were joined by a Causeway formed of Sunken Ships, upon which YOU CAN WALK BETWEEN THE TWO!
I've been lately posting a meme of my very own, that being "#OMGPONIES", but just now, just in this discussion, shall not.
The very greatest sorrow.
The very-worst kind of horror.
The very-most inconsolable grief.
I need to stop now but will continue in my reply A Good Long Time From now, perhaps after I two have been overcome with the greatest of sorrow, the worst of horror as well as the inconsolablest of grief.
The French have a few other possession. Please someone _else_ point them out.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @08:17AM (1 child)
Lobster tires?
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday February 20 2019, @11:19AM
> So when can I buy lobster tires?
As soon as you find a lobster with wheels? =)
(On a related note, I take it you did not notice the story's dept line?)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @01:00PM (5 children)
If you look at the underside of a Roly-poly, it looks like a lobster or crawdad. Who da f thought it was a good idea to rip the head off one of those and suck the ooze out of it? Might as well suck on an oozing pimple.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 20 2019, @01:10PM
People seem to like to eat lobsters. Maybe you have it backwards, and you should be eating more bugs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @01:32PM
They aren't bugs, they are features.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheFool on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:33PM (2 children)
Fun fact: lobster was considered a poor person food for a long time. So I'm not sure who it was that first tried it, but the train of thought was probably something like "... you know, it's this or starving to death.". Not really sure why it got popular eventually, either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @01:12AM
It's true. Lobster used to be fed to slaves, and since it tastes better than cassava many Africans volunteered to be slaves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @03:17AM
They fed lobsters to the prisoners in New England. Somehow, one thing led to another and now it's a delicacy.
Maryland blue crab meat is much tastier, but lobster tail (and Alaskan king crabs) is much meatier and less labor-consuming.
Anyone tried the coconut crab meat? How that taste?