Fragile Looking Beast Makes One of the Toughest Materials Known in Nature (IMAGE)

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science

Fragile Looking Beast Makes One of the Toughest Materials Known in Nature

Caption

The heart urchin lives its entire life dug into the sea bottom. Its fragile looking calcium shell needs to withstand the combined pressure of half a meter of sand and a couple of meters water. Dirk Müter of University of copenhagen, Department of Chemistry, discovered, that this makes it one of the toughest creatures known.

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Photo: Jes Andersen/University of Copenhagen

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