Diatoms are unicellular microalgae that form SiO 2(silica)-based cell walls
with complex shapes and nano- to microscale patterns. Such biologically
produced inorganic structures are paradigms for materials synthesis in
nanotechnology. Morphogenesis of diatom silica is controlled by unusual
biomolecules including intrinsically disordered proteins. Recently, new
insight has been gained into the mechanism by which such ”unorderly”
biomolecules are able to control formation of highly regular silica pat-
terns.