Earticle

초록

영어

Marine organisms are equipped with a variety of biotools, which help them against with the physical challenges of survival. These include teeth, fangs, beaks, spines, claws etc, essential in feeding, defense, and hunting. In contrast to the tools of human being made of metal alloys or inorganic materials, some biotools from marine organisms such as the polychaetes jaws, the squid beaks and the cuticle of the marine hydra are mainly composed of organic materials. Strikingly these organic biotools maintain stiffness, hardness and resistance to wear that is comparable to that of highly mineralized biotools of human beings. One reason for their appeal is lighter weight than industrial and biomedical tools made of various alloys. Compare a worm jaw and a steel awl: assuming that both perform equally well for a given function, for a given volume the worm jaw would weigh only a seventh of the steel awl since protein density is about 1.4 g/mL compared to 8 g/mL for steel. As the cost of energy continues to spiral upwards, weight reduction in high performance high impact materials is in need of increasing attention.
Understanding physics and chemistry of light marine biotools will provide the scientists useful insights for designing energy efficient materials. Eventually, mimicking marine biotools from the organisms will replace heavy and energy consuming alloy tools.

저자

• Dong Soo HWANG [ Pohang Ocean Science and Technology Institute, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Materials Research ]
• J. Herbert WAITE [ Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA. 1Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA. ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  한국생물공학회 학술대회

• 간기

  반년간

• 수록기간

  1985~2013

• 십진분류

  KDC 476 DDC 576