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Self-assembled nanocrystals of barium carbonate in biomineral-like structures

Dipartimento di Scienze Mineralogiche e Petrologiche, Università di Torino, via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy

^* Corresponding author, e-mail: erica.bittarello{at}unito.it

"Silica Biomorphs" are self-assembled nanocrystals of barium carbonate that form in silica-rich environments. Their morphologies are highly reminiscent of the shapes of primitive life (discovered in Archean cherts), but the precipitates are clearly inorganic and form without intervention of any organic material. The concept of morphology and symmetry has always been used to divide the world into two large groups: the realm of the inanimate and the realm of the living. The object of this study is not to debate the truthfulness of the microfossils, but to understand the laws that control the formation and the shape of polycrystalline structures and to underline the false notion that the living and abiotic realms can be distinguished on the basis of their morphology.

Key-words: silica biomorphs, witherite, helical filament, cardioid sheet, inorganic self-assembly.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. M. Garcia-Ruiz, E. Melero-Garcia, and S. T. Hyde Morphogenesis of Self-Assembled Nanocrystalline Materials of Barium Carbonate and Silica Science, January 16, 2009; 323(5912): 362 - 365. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]