Figure 1: Silica bioreplication of a chicken embryo. | Nature Communications

Figure 1: Silica bioreplication of a chicken embryo.

From: Synthetic fossilization of soft biological tissues and their shape-preserving transformation into silica or electron-conductive replicas

Figure 1

(a) Schematic showing the silica bioreplication (SBR) process on an intact chicken embryo. The corresponding SBR composite of a 9-day-old chicken embryo (before (b) and after (c) dehydration) and (d) after calcination at 500 °C to produce a silica replica (scale bar (b–d), 5 mm). Embryo shows minimal shrinkage or shape change following dehydration (c) and calcination (d). (e–g) (Scale bars, 1 mm) Positions of the magnified images showing (h, scale bar, 10 μm) surface dermal tissue, (i, scale bar, 20 μm) subsurface cellular connective tissue, (j, scale bar, 10 μm) subsurface cells of the ocular membrane, (k, scale bar, 5 μm) surface cells of the developing tongue. SEM images were acquired following sputter coating of Au/Pd to a thickness of 10 nm.

Back to article page