EXQUISITE crystals created by nature can now be copied in the lab. Mike
Whitcombe and his colleagues at the Institute of Food Research in Reading,
Berkshire, engineered a polymer with cavities matching the shape of calcite.
They embedded calcite crystals in a divinyl benzene polymer 鈥渓ike raisins in
a pudding鈥�, says Whitcombe. The crystal-shaped cavities in the polymer served as
templates for growing more crystals. (Nature, vol 398, p 312).