{"id":204,"date":"2017-08-09T19:21:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T19:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert2\/?page_id=204"},"modified":"2026-03-09T02:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T02:30:03","slug":"sea-urchin-teeth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/sea-urchin-teeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Urchin Teeth"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);\" class=\"is-style-mini-bar wp-block-post-title\">Sea Urchin Teeth<\/h1><div id=\"\" class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-background  has-base-background-color\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0; padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40); padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60);\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\"><div class=\"wp-block-columns alignnone is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" ><div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\"><figure id=\"attachment_205\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\" aria-label=\"Data from ref. 1.\"><a href=\"\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-205\" src=\"\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/SUT_larger.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Data from ref. 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p class=\"normaltext\">The teeth of sea urchins are among the most complicated structures in the natural world. The image here shows the cross section of one tooth which looks a bit like a mushroom. In the higher magnification image, you can appreciate the details of imbricated minerals: the elongated structures are plates (the rounded ones are fibers) and these both are entirely made of calcite. The space between fibers and plates is completely filled by high-Mg calcite nanoparticles ten nanometers in size.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol class=\"reftext\">\r\n \t<li value=\"1\">C. E. Killian, R. A. Metzler, Y. T. Gong, T. H. Churchill, I. C. Olson, V. Trubetskoy, M. B. Christensen, J. H. Fournelle, F. De Carlo, S. Cohen, J. Mahamid, A. Scholl, A. Young, A. Doran, F. H. Wilt, S. N. Coppersmith, and P.U.P.A. Gilbert.\r\nSelf-sharpening mechanism of the sea urchin tooth.\r\n<span class=\"journ\">Adv. Funct. Mater. 21, 682-690 (2011).<\/span> <a class=\"reftext\" href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/adfm.201001546\/abstract\">PDF<\/a>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rsc.org\/chemistryworld\/News\/2011\/January\/07011104.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Royal Society of Chemistry<\/i>, Urchins bare their teeth in materials research<\/a> 01\/07\/11<\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/2010\/12\/101228-sea-urchin-teeth-self-sharpening-tools-science-animals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>National Geographic<\/i>, Rock-Chewing Sea Urchins Have Self-Sharpening Teeth<\/a> 12\/28\/10<\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/news\/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118307&amp;org=NSF&amp;from=news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NSF News<\/a> 12\/22\/10<\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.wisc.edu\/18804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ever-sharp urchin teeth may yield tools that never need honing<\/a> 12\/22\/10<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li value=\"2\">C. E. Killian, R. A. Metzler, Y. U. T. Gong, I. C. Olson, J. Aizenberg, Y. Politi, F. H. Wilt, A. Scholl, A. Young, A. Doran, M. Kunz, N. Tamura, S. N. Coppersmith, and P.U.P.A. Gilbert.\r\nMechanism of calcite co-orientation in the sea urchin tooth.\r\n<span class=\"journ\">J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131, 18404-18409 (2009).<\/span> <a class=\"reftext\" href=\"http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/suppl\/10.1021\/ja907063z\">PDF<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li value=\"3\">Y. Ma, B. Aichmayer, O. Paris, P. Fratzl, A. Meibom, R. A. Metzler, Y. Politi, L. Addadi, P.U.P.A. Gilbert and S. Weiner.\r\nThe grinding tip of the sea urchin tooth: exquisite control over calcite crystal orientation and Mg distribution.\r\n<span class=\"journ\">Procs. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 6048-6053 (2009). <a href=\"\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/114.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/span> <a href=\"\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/114-SI.pdf\">SI<\/a> <a href=\"\/gilbert\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/114-NYT.pdf\">New York Times<\/a> article on this work\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/31\/science\/31oburchin.html?_r=2&amp;scp=1&amp;sq=pupa%20gilbert&amp;st=cse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>New York Times<\/i>, Exquisitely Tipped Teeth Let Sea Urchin Carve a Home From Stone<\/a> 10\/30\/09<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li value=\"4\">L Yang, CE Killian, M Kunz, N Tamura, and PUPA Gilbert.\r\nBiomineral nanoparticles are space-filling.\r\n<span class=\"journ\">R. Soc. Chem. &#8211; Nanoscale 3, 603-609 (2011).<\/span><a class=\"reftext\" href=\"http:\/\/xlink.rsc.org\/?doi=C0NR00697A\">PDF<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li value=\"5\">CE Killian, PUPA Gilbert.\r\nBiomineral Single Crystals\r\n<span class=\"journ\">Science 339, 510-511<\/span>\r\n<a class=\"reftext\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/339\/6119\/510.full\">Special Feature<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li value=\"5\">AJ Lew, E Beniash, PUPA Gilbert*, MJ Buehler*.\r\nRole of the mineral in the self-healing of cracks in human enamel.\r\nDOI: <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/acsnano.1c10407\">10.1021\/acsnano.1c10407<\/a>\r\n<em>ACS Nano<\/em> <strong>16<\/strong>, 10273\u201310280 (2022).<\/li>\r\n<\/ol><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data from ref. 1. The teeth of sea urchins are among the most complicated structures in the natural world. The image here shows the cross section of one tooth which looks a bit like a mushroom. In the higher magnification image, you can appreciate the details of imbricated minerals: the elongated structures are plates (the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uw_migration_status":"in-progress","_uw_gutenberg_post_content_before_migration":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-204","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/204\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.physics.wisc.edu\/gilbert\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}