Material engineers and scientists at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory were intrigued by how flexible, yet durable, fish scales are.

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They knew from marine biologists that fish scales have a hard outer shell with a softer inner layer, and they are tough and ductile. When predator’s teeth try to sink into the scales, the outer shell resists penetration but the inner must absorb the excess load to keep the scales in one piece.

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To determine how fish scales imaged to handle the impacts and stress, the Livermore team used X-ray imaging to techniques to examine and observe carp scales down to the nanoscale. The researchers used powerful X-ray beams at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) to watch fibers in carp scales react to stress. It turns out that fibers in the scale, which is made up of collagen and some minerals, are twisted into what are is called a […]

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