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Nuts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Julian F. V. Vincent
Julian F. V. Vincent*
Affiliation:
Centre for Biomimetics, The University, Reading, RG6 2AT, UK
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Abstract

The shell (pericarp) of nuts protects the seed from being eaten before it can germinate. It is presumably designed to resist fracture by external forces, and evolution will have optimised its design for this purpose. It appears that the material of larger shells, which will tend to be structurally more brittle, is tougher. However, the fracture mechanics theory for shells in compression is not available, nor the information on the biological selection pressures.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 292: Symposium S – Biomolecular Materials , 1992 , 35
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

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References

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