Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 3 Fall 2018 | Page 11

Sea urchins
may hold key
to lightweight
engineered
materials
In the ongoing search for strong, lightweight ma-
terials, researchers are looking at an odd source – sea
urchins, which have spines made of chalk, a generally
brittle substance.
The highly complex three-dimensional structure
of sea urchin spines that is 70 to 80 percent porous
creates a stable and strong structure. Studying the sea
urchin is part of a $540,000 National Science Foun-
dation grant being investigated by Ling Li, assistant
professor of mechanical engineering in the College of
Engineeri