When it comes to material design, Mother Nature has something of an advantage over modern science. After all, Her research and development cycle is measured in millions of years.

Scientists at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering are looking at a particular aspect of evolution in their latest project. It’s the idea of “dermal modification,” or the way in which a species’ skin evolves to provide survival benefits — armor, camouflage, thermal regulation and sensory capacity.

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Specifically, the research team is studying the scales of snakes, fish and butterflies to design the next generation of armor systems.

Fish and snake scales, for instance, provide a balance of mobility and protection that’s been optimized over millions of years, thanks to natural selection. The tiny scales on butterfly wings, meanwhile, have specific optical properties that could be useful for camouflage and other elements of body armor design.

The researchers are bringing emerging technology to bear on the challenge of approximating nature’s handiwork. Using 3-D printing, the team has created models of fish scales that –when embedded into an armor’s substrate — can be used to make armor lighter, stronger and more flexible.

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Ranajay Ghosh, an asso­ciate research sci­en­tist in the Col­lege of Engi­neering at Northeastern, says the design approach — sometimes called biomimetics or biomimicry — is an increasingly impor­tant area of research.

“The next gen­er­a­tion of armor sys­tems are light, per­form a lot of func­tions, and at the same time do not com­pro­mise on pro­tec­tion,” Ghosh writes on the university project page. “And nature provides very impor­tant infor­ma­tion in terms of armor development.”

The lab plans to con­tinue testing with a focus on fish scales’ pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties, and eventually hopes to combine the prop­er­ties of sev­eral dif­ferent ani­mal scales into one armor system.

Read more: http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/body-armor-based-on-snake-fish-and-butterfly-scales-150213.htm/.  

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