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3D printing reveals the power of shark skin By Jonathan WebbScience reporter, BBC News The printed replica included tough denticles embedded in a smooth, flexible membrane Continue reading the main story Scientists have used a 3D-printed model of shark skin to show how tooth-like scales help the predators to cruise efficiently. Viewed up close, a sharks skin bristles with tiny teeth or denticles which aid swimming. Engineers have tried to mimic the roughness of shark skin when designing swim suits and even racing cars. But the denticles have never been so well reproduced before, says a report?in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Perhaps counter-intuitively, creating turbulence near the edge of a moving object can reduce drag. In this way, the denticles act like the dimples on a golf ball. Now, researchers have also seen them alter specific currents that help propel the shark through water. George Lauder and his colleagues took a detailed scan of a tiny square of skin from a mako shark, and built a 3D model of a single denticle just 0.15mm long. The challenge was then to manufacture a synthetic skin, with thousands of these denticles embedded in a smooth, flexible membrane. It took us about a year, said Prof Lauder, of Harvard University. First the team made a detailed 3D model of a single denticle 3D printing builds up new objects layer-by-layer, following a computer-generated design. To print the shark skin, the scientists had to use two different materials for the hard, tooth-like structures and for the flexible base - much like the different coloured inks used to print a picture. The particular shape of the denticles also posed difficulties: Because theyre overhung, the 3D printers have to print a supporting material, which you then have to remove, Prof Lauder told the BBC. It took a while to work out all the tricks. The artificial skin has impressed Oliver Crimmen, a fish expert at the Natural History Museum who has previously advised Speedo on swim suit