{"id":127130,"date":"2021-09-02T15:22:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T22:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/zinc-infused-proteins-are-the-secret-that-allows-scorpions-spiders-and-ants-to-puncture-tough-skin"},"modified":"2021-09-02T15:22:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T22:22:39","slug":"zinc-infused-proteins-are-the-secret-that-allows-scorpions-spiders-and-ants-to-puncture-tough-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/zinc-infused-proteins-are-the-secret-that-allows-scorpions-spiders-and-ants-to-puncture-tough-skin","title":{"rendered":"Zinc-infused proteins are the secret that allows scorpions, spiders and ants to puncture tough skin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/zinc-infused-proteins-are-the-secret-that-allows-scorpions-spiders-and-ants-to-puncture-tough-skin2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/us\/topics\/research-brief-83231\">Research Brief<\/a> is a short take about interesting academic work.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>The big idea<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Many small animals grow their teeth, claws and other \u201ctools\u201d out of materials that are filled with zinc, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jsb.2009.01.007\">bromine<\/a> and manganese, reaching up to 20% of the material\u2019s weight. My colleagues and I call these \u201cheavy element biomaterials,\u201d and in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-021-91795-y\">new paper<\/a>, we suggest that these materials make it possible for animals to grow scalpel-sharp and precisely shaped tools that are resistant to breaking, deformation and wear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Many small animals grow their teeth, claws and other \u201ctools\u201d out of materials that are filled with zinc, bromine and manganese, reaching up to 20% of the material\u2019s weight. My colleagues and I call these \u201cheavy element biomaterials,\u201d and in a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}