(1) Back down they go for several more years, during which time the oyster instinctively surrounds the injected foreign body with nacre , so building up a beautiful pearl.

(2) The nacre , or mother of pearl, is the innermost layer, which is composed of thin, alternating, laminae (flakes or sheets) of calcium carbonate and an organic material.

(3) Now, researchers have designed a synthetic material that mimics both nacre 's internal architecture and its strength.

(4) They're an oyster's coping mechanism - they coat the irritant with smooth, shiny nacre .

(5) The oyster coats the sand grain with a silvery shiny layer called nacre .

(6) They suggested that this species is similar in microstructure to modern unionid bivalves, which are externally prismatic and internally nacreous .

(7) A solitary spot-light illuminates the stage, bathing the floorboards in a nacreous glow.

(8) The dorsal ligament groove is overlain dorsally and flanked laterally by the nacreous middle shell layer.

(9) Recycled glass tiles emit a nacreous sheen that changes throughout the day.

(10) The distressed surfaces, with their flinty earth tones, cobalt blues and nacreous whites, hold light like rough alabaster.