Mollusks maintain the symmetry of their pearls by adjusting the thickness of each layer of shimmering nacre. If one layer of the pearl’s nacre is thinner, the next layer is thicker and will balance ...

Pearls form as a natural defense mechanism when oysters trap irritants inside their shells and coat them with layers of nacre. While natural pearls are rare, cultured pearls are carefully farmed using ...

The mystery of how pearls form into the most perfectly spherical large objects in nature may have an unlikely explanation, scientists are proposing in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Langmuir, ...