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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Biomimetic materials are often so-called because they mimic the forms and functions of natural materials. Lay down crystalline sheets
separated by thin organic films, and you have something that looks and acts like hard, tough nacre. Or you can use existing biomaterials as templates, casting replicas of bone or marine
exoskeletons by filling up the empty spaces with inorganic materials and then dissolving the mould. Such structures can be valuable, but they are rather literal mimics — to put it harshly,
they simply plagiarize nature. It is as though you have claimed to write a new play by setting _Hamlet_ in Milan and translating it into Italian. This is a preview of subscription content,
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OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Authors * Philip Ball View author publications You can also search for this author
inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Ball, P. Natural order. _Nature Mater_ 6, 719 (2007).
https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2019 Download citation * Issue Date: October 2007 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2019 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able
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