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Asked by asiansupreme to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 27 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by lionalmessi.
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Emma Trantham answered on 27 Jun 2012:
Our skulls are very hard because they are made of bone (which I see from the keywords you already know).
The substance found at the highest levels in bones is something called calcium phosphate and it is the way these calcium phosphate molecules are arranged that gives bones their strength.
The problem is that although bone is hard, it is also quite brittle, meaning that it can break easily if the right force is applied to it. Generally you can apply more pressure forces to the bone than twisting forces, but if you apply enough pressure the bone can break (which is why if we are really unlucky we can fracture the bones that make up our skull).
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Blanka Sengerova answered on 27 Jun 2012:
I think Emma’s answered from a scientific perspective. I’ll just add that I recently went on a baby first aid course and the guy running it assured us that the skull is actually a pretty good mechanism of protecting the brain so that we as humans are pretty resilient to bumps because the brain needs to be really well protected. Interestingly, babies’ skulls don’t actually grow together fully until they’re about 1-2 years old because a gap is left to allow the baby’s head to squeeze through the birth canal. Isn’t is ingenious how this sort of mechanism has evolved?
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