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posted by janrinok on Monday October 28 2019, @04:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the something-to-do-with-Pearl's-mother-apparently dept.

Submitted via IRC for soylent_red

Nacre, the rainbow-sheened material that lines the insides of mussel and other mollusk shells, is known as nature's toughest material. Now, a team of researchers has revealed precisely how it works, in real time.

More commonly known as mother-of-pearl, nacre's combination of hardness and resilience has mystified scientists for more than 80 years. If humans could mimic it, it could lead to a new generation of ultra-strong synthetic materials for structures, surgical implants and countless other applications.

"We humans can make tougher materials using unnatural environments, for example extreme heat and pressure. But we can't replicate the kind of nano-engineering that mollusks have achieved. Combining the two approaches could lead to a spectacular new generation of materials, and this paper is a step in that direction," said Robert Hovden, U-M assistant professor of materials science and engineering.

Researchers have known the basics of nacre's secret for decades -- it's made of microscopic "bricks" of a mineral called aragonite, laced together with a "mortar" made of organic material. This bricks-and-mortar arrangement clearly lends strength, but nacre is far stronger than its materials suggest.

"Nature is handing us these highly optimized structures with millions of years of evolution behind them," he said. "We could never run enough computer simulations to come up with these -- they're just there for us to discover."

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191023150330.htm

Journal Reference: Jiseok Gim, Noah Schnitzer, Laura M. Otter, Yuchi Cui, Sébastien Motreuil, Frédéric Marin, Stephan E. Wolf, Dorrit E. Jacob, Amit Misra, Robert Hovden. Nanoscale deformation mechanics reveal resilience in nacre of Pinna nobilis shell. Nature Communications, 2019; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12743-z


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday October 28 2019, @05:15PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday October 28 2019, @05:15PM (#912888)

    We could never run enough computer simulations to come up with these -- they're just there for us to discover.

    Matrix 4: Out of the Rabbit Hole

    Plot synopsis: it's simulations all the way up. The Matrix, the rise of the machines, is all an exercise in recursive programming by who you might as well call God, but if you get to know him he's really just an 11 year old script kiddie who was born on a world where Moore's law ran unchecked for 1000 years, trying out our universe on their equivalent of a Raspberry Pi.

    Neo became self-aware because the recursion is reaching its limits and evidence of the code is starting to show through the fabric of the simulation.

    In God's world, they use compounds and genes simulated in systems like these as a replacement for "naturally discovered" materials that the lower level sims like Neo's co-sims work with.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @06:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @06:48PM (#912916)

    Yes, but imagine if God and His world were but a simulation...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @10:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @10:06PM (#912987)

    Should probably call it Matrix 5, Matrix 4 was already done. It had a black Neo, aka Terry Crews. The reality in this one is scary, it had monsters. Furry monsters.

    You can see the movie on youtube, search for Simulation Theory...