How nasty, foot-long 'wandering meatloaf' snails could improve car batteries

"Slow" and "ugly" are words used to describe some hybrid cars and, coincidentally, the gumboot chiton. Soon the two may have even more in common thanks to a discovery by researchers at the University of California, Riverside. Gumboots, also known as the "wandering meatloaf," are foot-long marine snails that roam tidal zones, scraping algae from rocks by using up to 80 rows of magnetite-tipped teeth. Magnetite, the "hardest biomineral known on Earth," not only strengthens the gumboot's chompers, it makes them magnetic as well.

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