![]() ![]() Chambered nautilus Chambered nautilus shell © Getty Images Easy and cheap to make, this could be the ideal material for the next generation of smartphone screens that won’t smash no matter how hard they’re dropped, all inspired by nature’s nacre. Scientists from Canada’s McGill University recently mimicked the structure of nacre using glass flakes and acrylic to produce a transparent composite that’s three times stronger than normal glass and five times more resistant to fractures. The nacreous crystals slide over one another and the chitin stretches, dampening the energy of a spreading crack and halting it in its tracks. If the outside of the shell gets damaged, the inner nacre layer stops cracks from growing bigger. ![]() This super strength comes down to nacre’s microscopic structure of diamond-shaped crystals stacked like bricks, with layers of chitin in between.Ĭhitin is the same tough protein that makes insect exoskeletons and shrimp shells. Nacre is 95 per cent calcium carbonate – chalk, essentially – but try dropping an abalone shell and you’ll see it’s virtually shatterproof. Abalone Abalone nacre © Claudio Contreras/Ībalone shells are gleaming and shiny on the inside, thanks to layers of nacre, the same stuff that pearls are made of. But seashells are far more than just pretty objects, and their intricate structures can help us learn more about the inhabitants that once dwelled inside them. Many of us have seen seashells on the beach and marvelled at their colours, and patterns of curves and ridges. The beautiful, intricate world of seashells
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