Sea snail teeth may be the key to super-light race cars

It's increasingly common to find supercars, laptops and other gadgets clad in strong-yet-light carbon fiber, but scientists may have a better (if decidedly stranger) solution: sea snail teeth. The University of Portsmouth has determined that a fibrous mineral structure found in limpet teeth is so strong that it could be used for the shells of race cars and many other devices where a strength-to-weight ratio is important. It's even stronger than spider silk, the previous natural strength champion, and the tooth's structure doesn't become more fragile as it gets larger.

This is just a study, so any production plans are a long way off. However, researchers believe it's possible to copy the fiber-like structures and produce composites that could be useful for human-sized products. Don't be surprised if one of your future cars or computers is that much lighter thanks to some rather unassuming sealife.