An ant bite can indeed make a punch, but why is it so? A team of researchers shed light on how these insect “tools” can easily pierce and cut surfaces.
Anyone who has been bitten by an ant knows that it will definitely hurt their jaw teeth to be pierced.According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), these structures are attached to the mouths of organisms and are made of materials that bind a single zinc atom. famous In the press release.
In a new study, Publish In Wednesday’s “Science Report,” a team of researchers discovered what helped ants and other tiny creatures to pierce and cut “relatively easily.”
In their research, researchers from PNNE and the University of Oregon measured the hardness and elasticity of ants, and “for the first time measured the loss tangent, fracture energy, wear resistance and impact resistance of materials rich in zinc and manganese.” , Sandworm and scorpion tools, such as claws, teeth and stings.
To this end, they used atom probe tomography to carefully observe the arrangement of individual atoms at the tip of biological tools and found quite interesting results.
“We can see that zinc is evenly distributed in the teeth, which is surprising,” PNNL research co-author and materials scientist Arun Devaraj said in a PNNL press release. “We thought that zinc would gather in the nano nodules.”
in a video Published with the research, one can see the efficiency of these creatures’ biting and cutting, as well as the zinc atom composition of their special tools.
The researchers wrote: “Compared with materials containing biomineral inclusions, this homogeneity seems to be able to create sharper and more precise engraving’tools’, and it also eliminates the interface with inclusions that may be easily broken. “
The researchers added: “We believe that the reduction in force associated with sharpness can significantly save energy and also enable organisms, especially smaller organisms, to pierce, cut, and grasp ordinary or biomineralization.” Objects that cannot be touched by tools.
As PNNL explained, the researchers estimated that if their tools were made of the same tools, then sharper tools would allow these creatures to use only 60% or less of the force needed. Human teethIn short, zinc is arranged for “maximum cutting efficiency”, thus allowing them to use less energy.
“These advantages can explain why every spider, ant, other insects, worms, crustaceans, and many other biological groups have these specialized tools,” PNNL said.
Photo: Pixabay
