One of my mottoes is, “If you let me manipulate individual atoms, I will give you black magic.”
Nanotech is absolutely Clarke-ian. Beyond magic, it can be miraculous.
And, of course, bio-mimetic and bioinspired design is always cool.
So let’s mash up these coolnesses, and look at how natural bio systems manipulate atoms to generate amazing materials.
Along those lines, this spring, researchers in California report on the complex and elegant molecular processes in bloodworms, Glycera dibranchiata. [2] These marine animals are notable for their very sharp, very hard copper teeth. Just exactly how do these teeth grow out of worm and sea bottom?
The answer so far is pretty complicated. The research shows that these teeth are a complex structure of melanin and copper. I’m pretty sure that clever apes don’t know how to make this stuff, so just how does the bloodworm get his teeth?
The study describes a “multi-tasking polypeptide” in the bloodworm’s jaw, which functions as “[c]atalyst, template, and copolymer in film formation” [2]. Huh? What?
This multi-tasking polypeptide, which they call “Multi Tasking Polypeptide”, is a relatively simple molecule. Yet it performs six (!) different functions in jaw (and teeth) formation, collecting copper, synthesizing melanin, laying down structures and templates, and gluing copper into the structures. This molecule is an autonomous assembly systems for complicated jaws and teeth!
“MTP achieves all these by assuming unprecedented roles as a building block, organizer, and fabrication”
([2], p. 1)
Kewl!
I don’t really understand the details of this magic, but I certanly grok how “[t]he combination of chemical simplicity and functional versatility in MTP holds tremendous potential for bio-inspired and natural materials processing.” ([2], p. 12)
The researchers note that we still have little clue how this mechanism evolved, or, for that matter, how the copper gets concentrated in the jaw of the growing baby bloodworm. [1]. So there is plenty of work to do.
- Veronique Greenwood, These Bloodworms Grow Copper Fangs and Have Bad Attitudes, in New York Times. 2022: New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/science/bloodworms-copper-teeth.html
- William R. Wonderly, Tuan T. D. Nguyen, Katerina G. Malollari, Daniel DeMartini, Peyman Delparastan, Eric Valois, Phillip B. Messersmith, Matthew E. Helgeson, and J. Herbert Waite, A multi-tasking polypeptide from bloodworm jaws: Catalyst, template, and copolymer in film formation. Matter, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2022.04.001
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