Heavily armoured: A Senegal birchir in an aquarium.
Credit: MIT
PARIS: An extraordinary African fish that inhabits muddy pools, and whose lineage can be traced back 96 million years, could be the model for the light, bomb-proof body armour of the future.
So say Pentagon-backed scientists who have pored over the scales of Polypterus senegalus, also called the Senegal bichir or the dinosaur eel.
Long and skinny and of ancient heritage, the 40-centimetre-long predator has multiple layers of scales that first dissipate the energy of a strike, then protect against any penetration to the soft tissues below and finally limit any damage to the shield to the immediate area surrounding the assault.
Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Boston, U.S., used nano-scale measurements to look at several scales that were harmlessly removed from a living fish. They found the scales – about 500 millionths of a metre thick – have four layers. The tiny shield was then put to the test, in a simulation of a biting attack.
"Energy-dissipating mechanisms"
The team believe the scales' protection is remarkably effective because of the different composite materials, the geometry and thickness of each of these layers. The overlapping junctions between the layers themselves also play an important role.
The design is "fascinating, complex and multiscale," say the scientists who detail the discovery in the British journal Nature Materials.
"Such fundamental knowledge holds great potential for the development of improved biologically-inspired structural materials," said Christine Ortiz, an MIT associate professor in materials science and engineering and lead author of the study.
"Many of the design principles we describe – durable interfaces and energy-dissipating mechanisms, for instance – may be translatable to human armour systems," said Ortiz.
no more so than the higgs boson
no more so than the higgs boson, but gentlemen can disagree.
dinosaur eel
It's so tragic that the first thought about the 96 million years old eel is that it could have a military use. Why not just admire this creature's amazing resilience and spend some serious time getting rid of bullets and bombs.
And, by the way, I don't see any connection between God to whom creation and evolution are just two parts of an overall design, and the dogmatic gibberish of the organised religions who are still trying to peddle mindless superstition based on fear and guilt.
Lionel Hurst, Brisbane
EEL Armour
I whole-heartily agree on your "military use" comment. Perhaps one day our species will work harder towards getting along w/ our neighbors as well as nature. I hope articles such as this one help folks realize how wondrous "life" is w/out reducing it to a "magic act". Perhaps as we appreciate the role biologically inspired structures can serve, we will also grow in our respect towards the diversity of life.
Larry Lear
Toledo, OH
Original Poster here. Couple
Original Poster here.
Couple questions that I don't necessarily have answers for...
If the scales were a result of evolution, is there any evidence in the fossil record of a less sophisticated version of this scale?
My understanding (which I admit may be incorrect) is that any mutations we've been able to observe have all been the result of a loss of information. eg. By taking a pack of say, Jack Russell Terriers, and through very careful, human-controlled breeding, we're still never going to be able to generate something significantly larger like a german shepherd. The genetic ability to produce such large offspring has been lost.
Why is it that wherever we see evidence of a design we assume there's a designer, (eg. art, architecture, transportation, radio waves from space) except in the natural world around us?
Please help if you can. I am not so closed minded as I came across in my first post. Apologies for that.
Ian Gates