Narwhal Tusk Contains Two Spirals, Not One, Researchers Find
An international team led by Aarhus University has mapped the internal structure of the narwhal tusk in three dimensions using SAXS tensor tomography, an advanced X-ray method. The tooth features two opposing spirals. The outside twists to the left while the interior twists in the opposite direction, forming a biological counterbalance where two opposing forces meet at the interface between the inner and outer parts. The findings, published in Nature Communications, show how mineralized collagen fibrils organize to create this structure. Researchers had known the left-handed shape must reflect a particular organization of these microscopic building blocks, but mapping that organization in three dimensions was impossible until now.
Natural structures like the narwhal tusk demonstrate how biological materials achieve strength through internal organization that scientists could not previously visualize in three dimensions.
Source: eurekalert.org.
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