limpet

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

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    02.18.2015

    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.