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A Better Bike Lock?
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
THEFT DETERRENT: In the future, Proteus could be used to make a stronger bike lock.
DR RENÉ VOGEL/FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE FOR MACHINE TOOLS AND FORMING TECHNOLOGY IWU
UNCUTTABLE MATERIAL: Drills and saws can’t cut through Proteus.
Someday, locks made of a new non-cuttable material could help keep your bike super secure. The material, called Proteus, is made of aluminum (Al) foam that contains tiny ceramic spheres. Try cutting through a piece of Proteus with a saw, and the ceramic spheres begin to vibrate. The movement dulls the saw’s sharp edges and breaks the spheres into fine particles. Further vibrations cause the particles to fill gaps in the foam, which hardens under the pressure of the blade’s cutting. “Proteus turns the force of whatever is attacking it back on itself,” says Miranda Anderson, a researcher at the University of Stirling in Scotland who helped develop the material.