Introduction
Join us in either Edinburgh in May 2025 for this edition of the Faraday Discussion series. The Faraday Discussions are unique international discussion meetings that address current and emerging topics at the forefront of the physical sciences.This meeting is for established and early-career scientists, postgraduate students and industrial researchers working on various aspects of biomineralization research. It will provide an ideal forum for cross-fertilisation of ideas and understanding between the distinct but adjacent communities working in this exciting field. On behalf of the organising committee, we look forward to welcoming you to Edinburgh.
Format
Faraday Discussions have a special format where primary research papers written by the speakers are distributed to all participants before the meeting, and most of the meeting is devoted to discussing the papers. All delegates at the meeting, not just speakers, have the opportunity to make comments, ask questions, or present complementary or contradictory measurements and calculations during the discussion sessions. In addition, there is a dedicated poster session where further discussion takes place. The research papers and a record of the discussion are published in the journal Faraday Discussions.Themes
It becomes increasingly clear that the relationship between structure and function of hierarchical biominerals can only be understood by connecting the length scales and interrogating comprehensively the impact of atomic-level organisation and the multi-level assembly of the resulting composites. This Faraday Discussion will focus on the application of advanced methods to scrutinise existing paradigms in biomineralization and improve our understanding of mineralisation across length scales by bringing together different communities including world-leading experts in relevant imaging and spectroscopy techniques with the biomineralization community where these methods are commonly used.Crystal nucleation in biominerals
This session will focus on understanding events occurring at the atomic scale during the formation of biominerals: crystal nucleation under biological conditions, the interaction between ions and nuclei with biomacromolecules, the role of amorphous precursor phases and the role of kinetics and thermodynamics in determining polymorph type, crystal nucleation and morphology.
Interfaces at the nano scale
This session will focus on high resolution imaging techniques to characterize crystal growth at the nanoscale under biological conditions and the mechanisms leading to the assembly of nano-crystalline building blocks into ordered polycrystalline structures.
Interfaces at the micron scale
This session will focus on discussing techniques that are suitable for bridging the gap between the nano- and micron scales for the characterization of the structure of biominerals. We will cover both synchrotron X-ray-based imaging and electron microscopy techniques that address different length scales.
Connecting length scales
After dedicating the previous sessions to characterizing the structure of biominerals can be characterized at different length scales, the focus of this session will be to put it all together and discuss how the structure and formation of biominerals can be addressed using a range of techniques that can bridge all length scales – from the atomic to the micro-scales.
