Adaptive protein crystal may lead to new and improved protective material

UC San Diego chemists recently built what is being called an “adaptive protein crystal” that fascinatingly is able to thicken upon being stretched in a perpendicular direction instead of thinning as other materials would do. Similarly, when it is compressed in one dimension, it compresses in another instead of expanding and also becomes denser. The crystal may help create improved running shoes, with stronger shock absorbency, and body armor that becomes more hardened upon bullet hits.

http://sciencenewsjournal.com/poten...ed-thanks-adaptive-protein-crystal-discovery/

Paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17633.html