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Science 12 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5737, pp. 1027 - 1028
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114920
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Perspectives

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY:
Choosing the Crystallization Path Less Traveled

S. Weiner, I. Sagi, L. Addadi

Many organisms use a most unexpected strategy for forming large single crystals such as those that make up mineralized skeletal parts. Although nucleation and growth of a crystal occur from a solid disordered phase that has the characteristics of a melt phase, the process is accomplished at ambient temperatures and pressures. This strategy allows organisms to mold the crystals into unusual shapes and orient them at will.

The authors are in the Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. E-mail: steve.weiner{at}weizmann.ac.il

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