Shellfish help scientists develop a material that’s impossible to cut
When Stefan Szyniszewski was tasked by the Home Office with producing an uncuttable material, it was not hardened steel he considered but the resistant properties of abalone and sandbags.
For although each part of the shimmering shell of abalone is weak, when the components come together they are able to resist a shark’s jaws.
And while you can push a sword through a sandbag with little force, it is able to stop a bullet dead.
In a paper in the journal Scientific Reports Dr Szyniszewski, from Durham University, has demonstrated a material that blunts an angle grinder in seconds, amplifying vibrations to reflect the tool’s power back on it. Now he and his colleagues are in talks with manufacturers to get it into production.