Beautiful 'flowers' self-assemble in a beaker

By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, materials scientists at Harvard have found that they can control the growth behavior of crystals to create precisely tailored structures—such as delicate, ...

Robotic ammonites recreate ancient animals' movements

In a university swimming pool, scientists and their underwater cameras watch carefully as a coiled shell is released from a pair of metal tongs. The shell begins to move under its own power, giving the researchers a glimpse ...

First DNA extracted from modern, ancient and fossil tropical shells

In Wonderland, Alice drank a potion to shrink herself. In nature, some animal species shrink to escape the attention of human hunters, a process that takes from decades to millennia. To begin to understand the genetics of ...

Oysters close their shells in response to low-frequency sounds

Oysters rapidly close their shells in response to low-frequency sounds characteristic of marine noise pollution, according to a study published October 25, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jean-Charles Massabuau ...

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