Posted 12.01.2011 at 11:50 am
7 Comments
Crab Becomes Transparent
Md. Iftekhar Shams, Masaya Nogi, Lars A. Berglund and Hiroyuki Yano
In the latest issue of Soft Matter, a team of biochemists from Kyoto University show off their latest creation: a crab shell that came from a normal crab, but which has been made as clear as glass. The hapless crustacean's chitinous exoskeleton was treated with hydrochloric acid, lye, and ethyl alcohol, which removed all the pigments, proteins, and whatnot while leaving the chitin substrate intact. This "nanofibrous structure" was then impregnated with acrylic resin. Result: transparent crab shell.
A similar technique was applied to make a chitin-based transparent film, whose sturdiness, high heat resistance, and clarity could find it a place in the screen of your next TV.
Also in the works, we can only assume, is a convenient vending machine full of live crabs as clear as the day.
[PhysOrg]
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Are these crab's edible?
...crab.
@ el guapo
u can try eating them but the acrylic resin wouldn't taste very well plus its a bit crunchy
So..... I wonder if this is how the Crystal Skulls became to be??? just a thought but this is pretty interesting
The invisibal man by hg wells!
-sevykeble
the future is happening so fast that it is now.
Eric18 that is a very interesting concept, this certainly does ponder the question wether the skulls were man made rather being natural phenomena.
chitin ≠ quartz
quartz = silicon
how about molded chitinous scaffold for growing organs, like spider legs for paraplegic mountain climbers.