This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Cynthia Graber.

Got a minute?

Scientists have been looking to nature for inspiration for materials with useful properties.

Insect exoskeleton's and shark skin are examples of materials that exhibit strength, durability, and less wind and water drag.

They're also looking at natural construction that could inform our own design projects.

In that arena, researchers recently focused on the shape and structure of seashells.

In a new study, they report on the properties of two types of shells collected from a seashore

in southern India, a bivalve with a typical clamshell

style shell and a screw-type shell belonging to a turbinate.

The scientists performed a detailed analysis of the structures and the ways in which they

respond to stresses at various locations.

They determined that the bivalve distributes force along the outer edge of the shell to protect

the soft body inside.

The screw-shaped shell keeps force directed at large rings while the soft body stays within the smaller rings.

The two shell shapes can survive loads nearly double that which could be withstood by a simple sphere or cylinder.

The study is in the journal Science Adv advances. So if you wind up driving a

shell-shaped car someday, it'll be both stylish and designed to protect the soft bodies

inside.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American 60 Second Science, I'm Cynthia Graber.