Publication Date:
1992-02-28
Description:
Many organisms construct structural ceramic (biomineral) composites from seemingly mundane materials; cell-mediated processes control both the nucleation and growth of mineral and the development of composite microarchitecture. Living systems fabricate biocomposites by: (i) confining biomineralization within specific subunit compartments; (ii) producing a specific mineral with defined crystal size and orientation; and (iii) packaging many incremental units together in a moving front process to form fully densified, macroscopic structures. By adapting biological principles, materials scientists are attempting to produce novel materials. To date, neither the elegance of the biomineral assembly mechanisms nor the intricate composite microarchitectures have been duplicated by nonbiological processing. However, substantial progress has been made in the understanding of how biomineralization occurs, and the first steps are now being taken to exploit the basic principles involved.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Heuer, A H -- Fink, D J -- Laraia, V J -- Arias, J L -- Calvert, P D -- Kendall, K -- Messing, G L -- Blackwell, J -- Rieke, P C -- Thompson, D H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1992 Feb 28;255(5048):1098-105.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1546311" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Bone Matrix
;
Calcification, Physiologic
;
*Ceramics
;
Chickens
;
Crystallography
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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