Glass isn't very durable. Drop it and you'll find it smashing into pieces. Now, a new technique inspired by natural materials such as mollusk shells or tooth enamel can make it 200 times stronger.

The technique works by first, weakening the glass with microscopic cracks. This allows the mollusk shell to deform slightly under pressure, and by making it less rigid, it makes it less likely to snap.

Scientists in this study etched glass with a 3D laser to create tiny microscopic cracks. The circuitous path of the squiggles dissipates energy, so cracks don't fan out like they would in ordinary glass. They filled the microscopic cracks with polyurethane as a cushion, which made the glass 200 times stronger than the original.



But stronger glass means more expensive too, right?

[Nature Communications via Science News]