Category: Uncategorized

GEOMETRIC MISFITS. "Many biomaterials are organized from nanoscale to the macroscopic scale...to give hierarchical materials that are sculpted with complex form -- spirals, spheroids and skeletons...with apparent disregard for the rigid geometric symmetry of their inorganic constituents." https://lnkd.in/eY-FGha View in LinkedIn

EXQUISITE CONTROL. "These examples demonstrate that organisms are able to control the location and crystallographic orientation of nucleation, the shape of the growing crystallites, and even the phase of the resulting material." https://lnkd.in/eVX4ANS View in LinkedIn

COMPLEXITY FROM SEEMING SIMPLICITY. "The vast array of organisms are now known to synthesize inorganic materials and more than 60 different biogenic minerals have been identified to date, most of them are calcium carbonates, calcium phosphates, silicates, iron oxides and iron sulfides. Unicellular organisms such as bacteria and algae also are capable of synthesizing inorganic nanomaterials, both intra- and extracellularly." https://lnkd.in/es5DATt View in LinkedIn

BIOMINERALIZATION CONTROL. "Examples of such synthesis include silica biosynthesis in diatoms, sponges and radiolarians, calcareous structures in coccoliths, gypsum in S-layer bacteria and the nanocrystals of magnetite and greigite in magnetotactic bacteria." https://lnkd.in/es5DATt View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues on biomineralization from last weekend, focusing on geometry, energetics and the mechanism of bio-fabrication of these organic crystals. Most of these crystal structures are fabricated by microscopic marine creatures, which affect global carbon cycles. Nanofabrication in a commercial setting is a hot topic, and nature illustrates that efficient solutions to difficult problems are possible via the endless inventivity of evolution. View in LinkedIn

HYBRID SYNTHESIS. "During biologically controlled synthesis of inorganic materials, inorganic phases grow within or on organic matrix or vesicles inside the cell, allowing the organism to exert a strict control over the composition, grain size, habit, and intracellular or surface location of the produced minerals." https://lnkd.in/es5DATt View in LinkedIn

The Guardian view on farming: not about food View in LinkedIn

MASS PRODUCTION. "Estimates of coccolith formation in E. huxleyi have shown that approximately one coccolith can be formed per hour." https://lnkd.in/eXTtntg View in LinkedIn

KEY FINDING. "One of the most interesting discoveries in the last decades was certainly the fact that nucleic acid sequences are not only information bearing molecules that serve as a read-only storage medium, but they can be actively modified by several coplayers." https://lnkd.in/eUYvi8e View in LinkedIn

SUPERSATURATION. "The most striking feature of calcification in the oceans is that it occurs almost exclusively by biogenic processes. Ca2 and CO2 inputs into the oceans occur through weathering of rocks, geothermal activity and hydrothermal seepage. The ocean is in fact supersaturated with Ca2 and CO2. However, spontaneous chemical precipitation is largely absent owing to the high concentrations of inhibitory ions in seawater and the presence of crystal poisons produced by the biota." https://lnkd.in/eXTtntg View in LinkedIn