Publishing their findings in the July 27 issue of the journal Acta Materialia, engineers at the University of California, San Diego have described how the body of the boxfish Lactoria cornuta could serve as inspiration for improved armour, robots and even flexible electronics. The boxfish joins other reef organisms such as seahorses and stomatopods being studied for such purposes. Drawing its strength from hexagon-shaped scales and the connections between them (similar to the connections in a baby’s skull) the boxfish’s body features a unique construction in which each scale, or scute, has a raised, star-like structure in the centre that distributes stress across the entire surface. In addition, there is an underlying, flexible layer of interlocking collagen fibre which is difficult to penetrate. In combination, this means that even if a predator managed to generate a crack in the outer layer, the collagen fibres would help to prevent the structure from failing. “These damage-resisting structures have evolved for millions of years in nature and are being studied with support of the U.S.
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