The protective armor of a rare iron-plated gastropod mollusk, the so-called "scaly-foot gastropod." Credit: A. Warén, Swedish Museum of Natural HistoryFrom Live Science:
Christine Ortiz is an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Recently Ortiz and a team of researchers at the National Science Foundation-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at MIT reported on the protective armor of a rare iron-plated gastropod mollusk, the so-called "scaly-foot gastropod." The snail thrives 2.5 miles below the central Indian Ocean, within the Kairei Indian hydrothermal vent field, and its shell is fused with granular iron sulfide. Understanding the physical and mechanical properties of the snail could improve load-bearing and protective materials in everything from aircraft hulls to sports equipment. You can read more about the iron-armored snail in a recent NSF press release, and you can learn more about Ortiz as she answers the ScienceLives 10 questions below.
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