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[syvarris]

Hexbug is already- Actually, no hexbug isn't organic.  It's just based on an organic material, which was extremely strong.  And which is probably still stronger than limpet teeth.

And yes, spider silk is weaker, strength wise, than kevlar and other aramids.  As I said, it's not very notable for it's strength, it's notable for it's toughness.  In other words, it takes more energy to break it than kevlar or steel or whatever, but it takes less energy to deform it.  It would make better armor than limpet teeth, because it resists more energy.  However, you're right, limpet teeth would be better for biting through metal.  I don't see why either is useful to us though, even with genemods.

I'm not sure what you mean by "don't get weaker as they get bigger like other materials".  I was not aware that stuff like steel got weaker as it got larger.  Are you specifically referring to organic materials?


@Paris/Pera

Well...

Hmm.  So, ignoring the stuff like shape, stopper, and words, which could mean just about anything or nothing, I think the important things are size of the potion, and redundancy with other people (which gives more data about what's inside).

That means there's three options to me.  Fifty, which is the only "quite large" potion that's been chosen twice, six, which is the only "unreasonably large" potion that has already been chosen,  and 49, which is the only "tankard sized" potion.  Ordered by rarity of the size, of course.

I choose 50, because there's the risk that potion size is negatively correlated with potency.  If someone else chooses six or forty-nine, I'll switch to that one instead.

Pera's just the first to choose 49 or 6.  Also, yay, and thank you.

[Unholy_Pariah]

Larger masses accumulate structural flaws which make them easier to break, apparently limpet teeth do not suffer from this... or something along those lines.

[Xantalos]

Limpet teeth ignore the square-cube law?

[Harry Baldman]

Limpet teeth ignore the square-cube law?

I think it might just mean that limpet teeth are very small, and thus demonstrate a higher tensile strength as a result.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Limpet teeth ignore the square-cube law?

I think it might just mean that limpet teeth are very small, and thus demonstrate a higher tensile strength as a result.

No, it means that limpet teeth maintain their strength as they get bigger. They don't break the square-cube law, but don't accumulate defects with increased size either - i.e. they are always at their maximum strength.

I.e. if you take a typical steel wire and try to pull it apart, then the longer the wire the easier it will break (assuming same diameter). This is because however you try to eliminate variables, you will always have random fault points within the material, due to the varied arrangement of atoms within a lattice. The more fault points, the less the overall strength of the object, and the more chance of having bigger fault points form.

With limpet teeth, the description makes it seem as if they're immune to that sort of scale-up problem.

(Disclaimer: I know nothing of how metallurgy and materials science works actually, and am just extrapolating verisimilitude from what I know and what is written in the article. The above statements may be entirely wrong.)

[Unholy_Pariah]

“Generally a big structure has lots of flaws and can break more easily than a smaller structure, which has fewer flaws and is stronger,” Barber says in a news release. “The problem is that most structures have to be fairly big so they’re weaker than we would like. Limpet teeth break this rule as their strength is the same no matter what the size.”

So yeah, sean seems to have the idea described pretty accurately

[Harry Baldman]

I think what exactly the interesting property of limpet teeth is depends on what exactly is meant by this:

[...] The composition of limpet teeth consists primarily of mineral nanofibres typically many micrometres in length but only a few tens of nanometres in diameter, thus below the critical size defined as promoting flaw insensitivity [5], [...]

Specifically, the part about the critical size. If they're below the critical size, does that mean that normally the nanofibers wouldn't be tolerant to flaws, or that normally they would be? If it's the former, then that means limpet tooth nanofibers are smaller than the average super-strong nanofiber, but still maintain extreme strength. This makes the most sense to me right now, considering they talk about optimization of nanofibers based on the limpet tooth's example. So scaling up's not the issue, but the way they maintain strength despite being very tiny fibers without a significant structural hierarchy.

Of course, could be the other way around. I've only read parts of the introduction.

EDIT: And it does seem like it is the other way around, considering the thinness is inferred later from experimental data. And the tensile strength appears to be independent of length as well, thus the scale-up thing.

[kj1225]

Is there any vehicle we could put a 12,000 barrel shotgun on?

[renegadelobster]

The ARSC probably, I'm just curious as to why?

[kj1225]

The ARSC probably, I'm just curious as to why?

Because it would be both scary to see and really hard to dodge shots from.

[Empiricist]

It's hard to dodge pretty much any projectile anyway. Since they usually travel well above the speed of sound.

[Beirus]

A 12,000 barrel mounted shotgun would be neat. If it swivels, you can use it to take out any pursuers/anything behind you in general and give yourself a slight boost from the recoil.  Think of the TK potential

[Gentlefish]

A 12,000 barrel mounted shotgun would be neat. If it swivels, you can use it to take out any pursuers and give yourself a slight boost from the recoil.

Make this a reality. I'll attach it to an office chair and ride the recoil around.

[Wolfkit]

A 12,000 barrel mounted shotgun would be neat. If it swivels, you can use it to take out any pursuers and give yourself a slight boost from the recoil.

Make this a reality. I'll attach it to an office chair and ride the recoil around.

Nah. Let's go straight into the realm of ludicrous, and make it belt fed, then use it as a jetpack.

[Gentlefish]

No see. It's a chaingun jet pack. Come on. The shotguns aren't precise or consistent enough to give you lift, but enough of an impusle I can crayfish away on the blast while pulverising anything behind me.