Inorganic materials using 'unusual' microorganisms

A promising avenue of research in materials science is to follow the strategies used by Mother Nature to fabricate ornate hierarchical structures as exemplified by organisms such as diatoms, sponges and magnetotactic bacteria. Some of the strategies used in the biological world to create functional inorganic materials may well have practical implications in the world of nanomaterials. Therefore, the strive towards exploring nature's ingenious work for designing strategies to create inorganic nanomaterials in our laboratories has led to development of biological and biomimetic synthesis routes over the past decade or so.