From biominerals to biomimetic materials: The path is the goal

Diatoms are unicellular organisms which possess a unique silicified cell wa ll. Their intricate structures have inspired the imagination of naturalists and scientists throughout centuries. However, molecular biological details about silica metabolic pathways still are obscure. To find out how soft ma tter can self-organize and create finite solid shapes and complex patterns is certainly one of the most challenging scientific problems today. Especia lly chemists just have started to unravel the mysteries of chemical morphog enesis. The article describes how cellular events occuring at different steps of di atom cell wall formation and silica biomineralization may serve scientists as a model to create innovative biomimetic strategies for the synthesis of hierarchically structured materials.