The Next Generation Of Bulletproof Armor Isn't What You'd Expect
Story by David Rossiaky • Yesterday 4:27 PM
As human beings, we stand out in the animal kingdom for our abilities to conceptualize, innovate, and create. But despite all our modern marvels and best ideas, Mother Nature often has us beat thanks to a 4.5-billion-year head start full of tinkering and refining. While biomimicry isn't a novel concept, there are still plenty of avenues we've yet to explore. This is what led bioscience and chemistry and forensic science researchers at the University of Kent to team up and go looking for bulletproof materials in a surprising place: the human body.
According to a paper published on the preprint server bioRxiv, the scientists focused their research on "talin," a protein that helps human cells maintain their form. Talin's chemical structure includes 13 bundles of rodlike shapes that can fold up or unfold in response to mechanical forces.
This makes them natural shock absorbers: By modifying the first three of these bundles and turning the protein into a hydrogel, scientists were able to improve talin's ability to handle impact forces and shear strain.
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