All are made largely of aragonite, the original shell material. The recent shells retain the organic material that give the shells their color and nacreous sheen. Nacre (mother of pearl) is an ...

The oyster or mussel slowly secretes layers of aragonite and conchiolin, materials that also make up its shell. This creates a material called nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, which encases the ...

Led by Dr. Zhidao Xia from Swansea University Medical School, the research team developed a synthetic material called hydroxyapatite/aragonite (HAA) using advanced 3D-printing technology.