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15-05-2023, 09:55 AM
Hana Chen
UPDATED MAY 14, 2023, 7:37 PM SGT
SINGAPORE - What makes the teeth of limpets – small sea snails typically as long as a credit card – the strongest known natural materials to date? Even stronger than spider silk, the tiny teeth that line the tongue of these aquatic creatures are so strong that a diamond saw is required to cut them.
Professor Gao Huajian, a Distinguished University Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has the answer – the teeth’s microscopic structures, which include numerous ultra-fine “nanorods” organised in specific patterns.
This was one of many discoveries by Prof Gao in nanomechanics. For his contributions in this field, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences.
Prof Gao, who is from NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, joins the ranks of renowned scientists, engineers and technologists around the world, including Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Dorothy Hodgkin as a member of the prestigious learned society.
He is also the only one of the 80 researchers, innovators and communicators awarded the Fellowship in 2023 to be from a Singapore organisation.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/n...fellowship
UPDATED MAY 14, 2023, 7:37 PM SGT
SINGAPORE - What makes the teeth of limpets – small sea snails typically as long as a credit card – the strongest known natural materials to date? Even stronger than spider silk, the tiny teeth that line the tongue of these aquatic creatures are so strong that a diamond saw is required to cut them.
Professor Gao Huajian, a Distinguished University Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has the answer – the teeth’s microscopic structures, which include numerous ultra-fine “nanorods” organised in specific patterns.
This was one of many discoveries by Prof Gao in nanomechanics. For his contributions in this field, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences.
Prof Gao, who is from NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, joins the ranks of renowned scientists, engineers and technologists around the world, including Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Dorothy Hodgkin as a member of the prestigious learned society.
He is also the only one of the 80 researchers, innovators and communicators awarded the Fellowship in 2023 to be from a Singapore organisation.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/n...fellowship
