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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: New strongest material in nature

Well, yes and no. Large-scale structures don't matter a much when you're dealing with microscopic planes. That's the bugabear of carbon nanotubes, which make limpet teeth look like day-old spaghetti - 5 GPa ain't no joke but nanotubes come in at 63 GPa. Problem is, organizing materials that are almost entirely dependent on arrangement for strength is easy when you're working at micron scales. When you're trying to make a fishing rod out of it, things change. That's why 55cm of the stuff warrants a press release.





kingmudsy  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, that's why I'm skeptical of the claims that they can apply this discovery to things as large as F1 Race cars. We've been hearing claims about what graphene could potentially accomplish for years now, but a large problem remains in cost-efficient manufacturing (although I'm sure there are other factors I'm unaware of).

kleinbl00  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

...and graphene is a lot lighter than anything involving iron ore...

kingmudsy  ·  3562 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Wait, I'm confused, why did you bring up iron ore?

kleinbl00  ·  3562 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Goethite

    Goethite is an iron oxyhydroxide containing ferric iron. It is the main component of rust and bog iron ore. Goethite's hardness ranges from 5.0 to 5.5 on the Mohs Scale, and its specific gravity varies from 3.3 to 4.3. The mineral forms prismatic needle-like crystals ("needle iron ore"), but is more typically massive.
distractorman  ·  3420 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The mineral being needle like means the creature doesn't need to 'sharpen' its teeth. They come sharp as a property of the mineral structure. Very interesting.