The shell of the "scaly-foot" snail, shown here, has a unique structure that may provide clues for designing improved body armor, a new study suggests. Credit: Anders Warén, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden.From Live Science:
A snail's shell that protects it from attacks underwater could provide clues for designing improved body armor to guard human soldiers, a new study suggests.
The research involved an unusual sea snail, the so-called "scaly-foot" snail which was first reported in 2003 and makes its home in the harsh environment of a deep-sea hydrothermal vent in the Indian Ocean. Past studies of the snail, a type of sea mollusk, revealed its foot was covered in plates of iron-sulfide minerals, and it is now the only known animal today to employ iron sulfides as a structural material.
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My Comment: The applications in the military are multiple .... the people who researched this need to be commended.