Funky Materials Give the Mantis Shrimp Its Powerful Punch

Imagine for a second that you're a crab, and a fellow crustacean called a mantis shrimp has decided to make you its lunch. The truth is, it's not worth struggling. The mantis shrimp uses muscles to cock back two hammer-like appendages under its face, storing energy in a saddle-like divot in the limbs. When it releases the latch, the hammers accelerate so quickly, and strike your shell with such brutality, that they produce cavitation bubbles in the water, which collapse and release a secondary shockwave that knocks you out cold. That's a lot to unpack, and no one knows the struggle better than scientists. For years, they've been using high-speed photography to figure out how a little crustacean can manage what is perhaps the most powerful pound-for-pound punch in the animal kingdom--and in the significant extra drag of water, no less.