Access

News and Views

Nature 423, 925-926 (26 June 2003) | doi:10.1038/423925a

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Materials science: Synthetic sea shell

Michael Rubner

Top

The mechanical properties of natural substances such as bone and shell are envied by those involved in the fabrication of materials. A 'bricks-and-mortar' structure, assembled layer by layer, is the key to making sea shells.

For a materials scientist, cross-sectional images of the complex microstructures of naturally occurring hard materials such as bones and sea shells are awe-inspiring. Over many millions of years, nature has devised schemes to combine seemingly incompatible building-blocks — 'soft' organic proteins and 'hard' inorganic particles of calcium carbonate — in a manner that produces composite materials with the unusual combination of high strength, hardness and toughness.