Daniel E. Morse

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the atomic force microscope to stretch the organic molecules exposed on the surface of freshly cleaved nacre and found that the elongation events occur for forces of a few hundred piconewtons, which are smaller than the forces of over a nanonewton required to break the polymer backbone in the threads.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors showed that soluble polyanionic proteins alone are sufficient to control the crystal phase of calcite and calcite without the need for deposition of an intervening protein sheet.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present experimental support for a model of abalone nacre growth that is based on mineral bridges between successive aragonite tablets rather than on heteroepitaxial nucleation.

TL;DR: The cDNA coding for Lustrin A, a newly described matrix protein from the nacreous layer of the shell and pearl produced by the abalone, Haliotis rufescens, a marine gastropod mollusc, is cloned and characterized.

TL;DR: In this paper, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses of the growth of these flat pearl composites reveal that biomineralization is initiated by the deposition of an organic sheet on the implanted substrate, followed by growth of a calcite layer with preferred {10.4}.