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PARIS: An extraordinary fish that inhabits muddy
pools in West Africa and whose lineage can be traced back 96 million
years could be the model for light, bombproof body armor for the
soldiers 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-centimeter 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) 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 meter thick—have four layers. The tiny shield
was then put to the test, in a simulation of a biting attack.
The experts 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.
“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.
“Many of the design principles
we describe—durable interfaces and energy-dissipating mechanisms,
for instance—may be translatable to human armor systems.”
The study appears on Sunday in a
specialist journal, Nature Materials.
--AFP
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