自然界“军备竞赛”中的材料科学

自然界中的生物材料具有优异的力学性能与独特的功能特性,这主要归功于它们复杂而巧妙的微观组织结构。特别是在长期的自然选择与生存竞争中,生物体进化出各种各样的天然武器,实现强力攻击与稳固防御这两种本身相互矛盾的技能之间的完美平衡。探索自然界"军备竞赛"中的材料科学能够从仿生角度为人造材料的优化设计提供宝贵的启示和灵感。文章阐明了典型天然武器的种类、形式、组织结构和力学性能特征,提炼了它们同步实现进攻与防御效果的共性的内在设计原则,总结了这些原则在促进新型仿生人造材料、器件与装置研发方面应用的最新进展,并进一步探讨了生物力学与仿生材料研究面临的机遇与挑战。

Nature weapons: materials science of evolutional “arms race”

Biological material systems have developed unique combinations of mechanical properties to fulfill their specific functions through a series of ingenious designs. Specifically, natural organisms have evolved a diversity of weapons during the long-term evolutionary “arms race” in generating an exceptional mechanical efficiency with a synergy of effective offense and persistence—two characteristics that often tend to be mutually exclusive in many synthetic systems. Taking lessons from nature may offer new promise for creating novel materials with unprecedented properties. This review elucidates the categories, forms, structures and mechanical properties of nature’s weapons, and extracts the design principles for achievement of both offensive and defensive properties from the perspective of materials science. We also revisit the new advances in replicating these design principles at different length-scales in artificial materials, devices and tools, and discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with the study on biomechanics and bioinspired materials.