Biologists from Kyoto University in Japan have turned a crab's
shell transparent. More than just a neat party trick, the
research into see-through structures could help the construction
of flat panel displays, solar cells and bendy screens. Muhammad
Iftekhar Shams and his team at Kyoto University took an entire
(dead) crab, and treated its body to a brew of acids and
chemicals. Hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and ethanol
stripped the body of minerals, proteins, lipids, fats and
pigments. This left a crab shell made entirely of translucent
chitin. Chitin is a long-chain polymer that is the main
component of crustacean exoskeletons. Finally, the shell was
immersed in an acrylic resin monomer. Polymerisation kicked in
(monomer molecules react together to form polymer chains), and
the team ended up with a perfect, ghostly recreation of a crab,
only now completely see-through. Buoyed by their success, Shams
and colleagues crushed up chitin from crab shells and spread the
powdered material into a nanocomposite