Our tasty seafood staple now a model for armor
When you think of fierce underwater creatures, the tiny shrimp may not come to mind among the water giants such as killer whales, the great white shark, manta rays, and others. But yet, when you are eating that scrumptious thing, don’t you find that shell a bit troublesome?
Well, whereas you may find that part annoying and just a hassle to deal with when cooking, other people, such as researchers that published a recent study, may have taken a liking to it. It was nearly a month ago that news barely broached out from researchers about possibly using the Mantis Shrimp exoskeleton (key feature to all arthropods’ livelihood and survival) to design a new body armor.
The Science behind shrimp exoskeleton research
According the information available from last month and lately, the shrimp exoskeleton is unique because of its ability to basically body slam its prey using a technique the researchers called “shear waves”. This part of the body it uses for this task is also unique in its design as it is as hard as other crustacean’s shells but shaped differently, a spring or spiral appearance.
What this does is help the ‘hammer’ survive the impact it throws on the prey by helping to cushion the impact on the body part much like spring in action. But still being lethal to the target.
The research on the shrimp exoskeleton has been published two separate times by researchers Tao Qu, Devendra Verma, Milad Alucozai, Vikas Tomar. Recently another paper was made available online on the 2nd of July. It will be available in print later in the journal Acta Biomaterialia.
The reason behind the study of the exoskeleton
It is interesting to see how this shrimp exoskeleton inspired such an interesting research. The researchers commented on the reason for the study was to help understand how evolution affects materials, especially in the exoskeletons of these shrimps that sustains no damage from the lethal sledgehammer attack it inflicts to feeds itself everyday.
When and if the understanding of how the material behavior works in the skype exoskeleton comes, then it may help to design better body armor capable of withstanding such high levels of impact that it can dish out. So good longevity of the material and good tolerance is key in such a concept.
