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Nanoengineering in Echinoderms: The Emergence of Morphology from Nanobricks

2005; Wiley; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/smll.200500246

1613-6829

Yuya Oaki, Hiroaki Imai,

Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

The sponge skeleton of the spine of sea urchins is found to be generated from nanocrystals 20–50 nm in size (main image). The nanocrystals make up the oriented architectures of various living species (see insets) in association with biopolymers; together they are in the form of inorganic–organic nanocomposites. This nanoengineering strategy offers the promise of the construction of unique macroscopic morphologies.