Your Next Suture Could Be Made of Shrilk, a Superstrong Synthetic Insectoid Material

The stuff of shrimp shells and exoskeletons makes for a strong, light, and biodegradeable replacement for plastics

By Clay Dillow Posted 12.19.2011 at 1:59 pm 8 Comments

A Synthetic Insect Wing Made of Shrilk Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Taking design cues from insects and shrimp, materials scientists at Harvard have created a material that’s as strong as aluminum alloy but only half the weight. The substance, dubbed “Shrilk” by its creators, is a material analog for insect cuticle--the material found in the exoskeletons of insects--and is the synthetic equivalent to one of nature’s strongest, lightest, and most interesting materials.

Insect cuticle is nature’s way of providing serious strength and protection without adding weight that would inhibit movement or flight. Moreover, it exhibits a variety of properties, often being rigid through the bulk of the insects body but flexible in the appendages and wings and elastic through joints. It is composed of specific proteins and layers of chitin, a polysaccharide polymer found in biological materials like shrimp shells.

That’s exactly where the researchers started. Using chitin derived from discarded shrimp shells, the team was able to mimic the mechanical and chemical interactions that make insect cuticle so remarkable between their chitin and a fibroin protein from silk, which they organized in laminar structure. The result is a thin, clear film that exhibits the same properties as real, natural insect cuticle. It’s cheap, biodegradable, and offers the strength and toughness of a metal alloy at roughly half the weight.

Potential applications include a biodegradable replacement for many plastics, making everything from trash bags to diapers to packaging more eco-friendly without sacrificing strength or integrity. The researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering also envision Shrilk becoming a strong biocompatible material used in medical practice for everything from load bearing wound sutures to scaffolds for regenerative tissue therapies. Meaning that someday soon, human beings may repair their bodies with the stuff of insect exoskeletons.

[Science Daily]

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8 Comments

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beefymclovin

12/19/11 at 3:52 pm

hope they are able to actually bring this to market. this could also be used to make a human exosuit, make it thicker. form fitting, strong and flexible. would make great riot gear for police...

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jherodthejadeprince

12/19/11 at 7:18 pm

Do I hear one step closer to working Ironman suit?

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drchuck1

12/20/11 at 4:48 am

cyborg construction material, cheers

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Eric18

12/20/11 at 7:16 am

@jherodthejadeprinc
ha right, it would be oh so cool

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B.V.

12/29/11 at 2:40 pm

@Contoria,

"Do actual cyborgs exist, other than science fiction?"

Cyborgs have existed ever since animals have augmented their bodies through (temporarily attached) technology known as "tools".

Want to see a cyborg in real life? Go outside and wait 5 minutes for someone to walk by with a smart phone--err, a detachable sensory & memory expansion unit with a visual-tactile interface.

;)

---

"Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:
I am not paid to listen to this drivel.
You are a terminal boob." - William S. Burroughs

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B.V.

12/29/11 at 2:42 pm

@beefymclovin,

"form fitting, strong and flexible. would make great riot gear for police"

Yeah, I can't wait to get peppersprayed in the face for exercising my Constitution-guaranteed right to peaceably assemble by a fat slob in insect armor.

---

"Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:
I am not paid to listen to this drivel.
You are a terminal boob." - William S. Burroughs

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AK90

01/17/12 at 11:54 pm

Pros: minimal scarring
Cons: Having to stave off violent trout attacks whenever you're near a lake

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