Diamonds are largely considered to be one of the hardest, naturally occurring materials on Earth, although with the right tools, you could actually cut or fracture a diamond. However, researchers from Durham University and the Fraunhofer Institute have created a new synthetic material that is so hard that it cannot be cut.
The material, dubbed Proteus, is so hard that in the video above, you can actually see it destroy tools made out of metal that attempt to cut it. How Proteus became such a hard material was thanks to the inspiration from seashells. It features ceramic spheres that are suspended inside of a flexible aluminum structure, and while it is only 15% as dense compared to steel, it is still sturdy enough to blunt instruments used against it.
This isn’t to say that Proteus is completely invulnerable, but rather it seems to be strong enough where it ends up doing more damage to the tools used against it. According to the researchers, they envision that Proteus could be used as a way of creating new protective gear and even construction materials without having to rely solely on metal.
It could also be used in things like locks as it would essentially make it more resistant to more traditional methods of breaking and entering, such as sawing off locks or using drills.
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