Biomimicking strength

Making biomimetic methods more accessible by introducing home hacking techniques. 

You probably know that limpets live on rocks, but what you perhaps didn’t know is that the humble limpet’s tooth is the strongest biomaterial in the natural world. According to Professor Asa Barber, the strength of a limpet’s tooth is on average 4.9 GPa. This is like trying to break a single piece of spaghetti with 3,000 half-kilogram bags of sugar. 

For this project, I had hoped to engineer and grow a limpet’s tooth in the lab and develop a biomaterial that is both strong and biodegradable. 

However, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the associated lockdown, the project has taken a momentary detour to create a home-made version, exploring the same processes using the facilities found only in my kitchen and utilising everyday materials, objects and ingredients accessible to me in lockdown. 

EXPERTS AND COLLABORATORS 

Professor Eduardo Saiz, Director of the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics (CASC), Imperial College London.

Muhammed Maktari, Material Engineer, Imperial College London.

Dr Simon Morley, Ecophysiologist, British Antarctic Survey.