Nature's hardest teeth: Chitons offer blueprint for advanced dental and industrial materials

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Japan's Okayama and Toho universities have conducted a first-of-its-kind study to understand how chitons, mollusks that feed on algae growing on intertidal rocks, develop such hard, wear-resistant and magnetic teeth. What they learned is inspiring new ways to produce advanced materials for a variety of applications.