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About the Cover
Cover:
The siliceous skeleton of a glass sponge Euplectelle aspergillum. This species represents a thin-walled tube and is covered with a colander-like sieve-plate. The animal can reach a size of 25 cm and the body is stabilized by spicule bundles. In sponges, the siliceous spicules are synthesized enzymatically by a protein that is found inside of the spicules. This protein is termed silicatein and it can, amazingly, synthesize glass at room temperature. The green filaments are formed from the enzyme and around them there are 1-2 mm-thick spheres, nanobioparticles, which have been synthesized by silicatein (see Perovic-Ottstadt et al., pp. 637-646).
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