已经发现了一种新的开发强大和轻质材料的模型，其中涉及包含空气口袋以产生僵硬的泡沫结构。欧洲杯足球竞彩首席研究人员从海胆的艰难外骨骼中汲取了灵感。具有与粉笔相同的成分，含有70％的空气，但非常强。
海胆外壳的大量扩大的3-D打印。图片来源：Jes Andersen/哥本哈根大学。
Material scientists are often inspired by the nature around them, both on the land and at sea.
珍珠母的辉煌光泽激发了研究人员创造光滑的表面，同时紧紧抓住蛤lam，激发了他们发展强大的胶水。欧洲杯足球竞彩泳衣中使用的材料可以减少水在水中模仿鲨鱼的皮肤。
现在是启发科学家的海胆的轮流。来自哥本哈根大学have drawn inspiration from the heart urchin, named for their heart-like shape, in the development of strong, yet extremely light, materials.
Soft Animals with Hard Shells
Heart urchins (also known as sea potatoes) live buried in sand where they feed on organic particles present in water by extending a channel above their burrow. Like most urchins they have a soft interior which is protected by a strong exoskeleton which consists of calcium carbonate.
海滩步道灵感研究
Dirk Muter, lead researcher of the project, drew inspiration for studying the shells of heart urchins when he was walking along a Croatian beach whilst on vacation. Upon glancing on the urchins washed ashore, Muter observed that though these urchin shells were as thin as a paper they had very few blemishes, despite living in tough environments such as rockbeds and pebbled shores.
Microscopic 3D Pictures
Muter和他的团队使用X射线显微镜研究来研究稳健的碳酸钙壳。使用此技术，可以在不破坏外壳本身的情况下创建外壳内容的3D图像。X射线图像使科学家能够通过多达千分之一毫米的分辨率来区分结构。有了如此高的分辨率，该团队能够对贝壳如此强大的原因有全面的见解。
Chalk Foam Surprisingly Strong
Chalk, which is made of calcium carbonate, can be broken easily. However, the structure of chalk is very different to the structure of the urchin's exoskeleton which contains far more pockets of air. A close up of the shell's structure reveals formations that resembles soapsuds, with numerous microscopic air cavities surrounded by thin struts of calcium carbonate. There are as many as 50,000 to 150,000 struts per mm3of the material, which consists of 70% air.
Withstands Enormous Pressure
碳酸钙根据其晶体结构显示不同的特征。从坚固而坚固的大理石到用于写作的柔软，脆弱的粉笔。编写粉笔和心脏顽童的孔隙率相似，但是心脏的顽童表现出粉笔强度的六倍。心脏胆素的结构接近强度是其泡沫结构的结果，这对于在10 m水的深度加30 cm的沙子的深度至关重要。