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Winter 2020-2021 | Research in 2020

FRONTIERS

Research at the Forefront

From Mach speed to strengthening security and materials.

Researchers have discovered that the diabolical ironclad beetle can take on a load of at least 39,000 times its body weight before its exoskeleton begins to fracture.
Image provided by Kisailus Biomimetics and Nanostructured Materials Lab, University of California, Irvine

Researchers have discovered that the diabolical ironclad beetle can take on a load of at least 39,000 times its body weight before its exoskeleton begins to fracture.
Image provided by Kisailus Biomimetics and Nanostructured Materials Lab, University of California, Irvine

This beetle can survive getting run over by a car. Engineers are figuring out how.

brief story additional photos/animations

How the beetle survives could inspire the development of new materials with the same herculean toughness, engineers show in a paper published Oct. 21 in Nature.

Source: This beetle can survive getting run over by a car. Engineers are figuring out how.

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College of Engineering at Purdue University