Crystals that take their bearing from nature


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe According to Greek legend, boats sailing the Mediterranean were at risk of punctures from the spikes of the shellfish that provided the


famous Tyrian purple dye. Nothing speaks more eloquently of the great toughness of these natural materials. Now chemists in the United States report that they can use the spiny secret of the


mollusc shell to control the growth of crystals, offering delicately tailored composite materials. Mollusc shells - typified by nacre (mother-of-pearl) - are crazy-pavings of hard slabs of


mineral, stacked in many layers like a pile of slates. Between each layer is a sheet of soft, organic, protein-based material that helps to bind the slabs together. But the protein sheets


may be more than just glue. They are responsible for ensuring that the crystalline mineral grows with the right shape: into flat slabs rather than compact, faceted blocks. This brickwork


arrangement, interleaved with softer material, makes the shell very fracture-resistant as well as simply hard. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS


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institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Authors * Philip Ball View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND


PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Ball, P. Crystals that take their bearing from nature. _Nature_ (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/news990826-11


Download citation * Published: 26 August 1999 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/news990826-11 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get


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