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Abalone

Here in Singapore we see abalone and think "oh, high-end special occasion food". This startup in California goes "oh, new biological nano-fabrication processes".
Dr. Belcher has studied the biology of abalones and how the mollusks are able to assemble an extremely hard shell from calcium carbonate and other minerals in an ocean filled with various microbes and contaminants. The result: she and her colleagues have developed proteins that can bind to about 30 different electronic, magnetic, and optical materials, and then assemble the materials into protein structures.

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