Crystals

Book excerpt: How do crystals nucleate and grow? Why and how do crystals form such a wide variety of morphologies, from polyhedral to dendritic and spherulitic forms? These are questions that have been posed since the seventeenth century, and are still of vital importance today both for modern technology, and to understand the Earth's interior and the formation of minerals by living organisms. In this book, Ichiro Sunagawa sets out clearly the atomic processes behind crystal growth, and describes case studies of complex systems from diamond, calcite and pyrite, to crystals formed through biomineralization, such as the aragonite of shells, and apatite of teeth. Essential reading for advanced graduates and researchers in mineralogy and materials science.