Brittle starfish shows how to make tough ceramics
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

An international team lead by researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, together with colleagues from the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France, have discovered how an echinoderm called Ophiocoma wendtii, known as a brittle star, can create material like tempered glass underwater. The findings are published in Science and may open new bio-inspired routes for toughening brittle ceramics in various applications that span from optical lenses to automotive turbochargers and even biomaterial implants.