They saw that the cutting mechanism system operates on what’s called an ultimate stress threshold. “Further input is now needed from surgeons, but this newly discovered mechanism has tantalising prospects.”The sawfly’s more passive cutting mechanism could become a bioinspired solution to this problem. According to the team, surgical saws and scalpels based on this principle could fuse the precision of scissors with the safety benefits of electrosurgical tools, without the thermal damage risks. Different species have evolved distinct tooth shapes for different plant hosts, so there could be multiple surgical applications that benefit from studying sawflies. “This suggests we could develop a range of surgical tools, each optimised for different tissue types or surgical procedures, all based on these natural cutting systems that have been perfected over millions of years.”