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Funky Materials Give the Mantis Shrimp Its Powerful Punch
- screature2 8y agoObligatory shoutout to the Oatmeal's writeup on mantis shrimp. It's still my favorite love letter to a (non-human) species. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
- jaytaylor 8y agoWhat a marvelous creature! The oatmeal piece is a great accessory to the news reported by Wired.
- btown 8y agoThis is actually really cool. New research being reported on indicates that, for the "saddle" organ it uses to store energy, the shrimp evolved a two-layered structure: one made of ceramic, which is brittle only when under tension but here is compressed heavily; and the other made of a polymer, which is stronger under tension as it is here. So it's a masterful specialization of the right materials for the job. I've typed this TL;DR primarily because the mods frown on low-effort content, but I really just wanted to post the required viewing for any story about the mantis shrimp, a YouTube classic: True Facts About The Mantis Shrimp - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM
- __alias 8y agoThank you for linking that classic.
- twic 8y ago> the shrimp evolved a two-layered structure: one made of ceramic, which is brittle only when under tension but here is compressed heavily; and the other made of a polymer, which is stronger under tension as it is here That's pretty much how a composite bow works, as i understand it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_bow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_bow
- jaytaylor 8y agoNag screen bypass (wouldn't go away for me on mobile): https://archive.is/MUpHy https://archive.is/MUpHy
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]