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Sea urchin yields a key secret of biomineralization
Date:10/27/2008

f specialized cells and begins as the animal lays down a single crystal of calcite in the form of a rhombohedral seed, from which the rest of the spicule is formed. Starting from the crystalline center, three arms extend at 120 degrees from each other, as in the hood ornament of a Mercedes-Benz. The three radii are initially amorphous calcium carbonate, but slowly convert to calcite.

"We tried to find evidence of a massive crystal growth, with a well defined growth front, propagating from the central crystal through the amorphous material, but we never observed anything like that," Gilbert says. "What we found, instead, is that 40-100 nanometer amorphous calcium carbonate particles aggregate into the final morphology. One starts converting to crystalline calcite, then another immediately adjacent converts as well, and another, and so on in a three-dimensional domino effect. The pattern of crystallinity, however, is far from straight. It resembles a random walk, or a fractal, like lightning in the sky or water percolating through a porous medium," explains Gilbert.

The new work, according to Gilbert, brings science a key step closer to a thorough understanding of how biominerals form and transform. Knowing the step-by-step process may permit researchers to develop new crystal structures that can be used in applications ranging from new microelectronic devices to medical applications.


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Contact: Pupa Gilbert
pupa@physics.wisc.edu
608-262-5829
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Source:Eurekalert

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