Number 72 (Story #1), March 23, 1992 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein BIOMIMETICS is the study of the structure and production of natural materials such as human bone and spider's silk for the purpose of designing useful artificial materials. At the March APS meeting in Indianapolis last week, Ilhan Aksay of the University of Washington described a technique called "ceraming," which involves replacing the cellulose fiber in wood with a ceramic polymer and in some cases metals. Special processing techniques can harden these composites in a matter of days rather than the millions of years it takes for petrified wood to form, and the resulting materials are, depending on the type of wood originally used, 50-90% harder than petrified wood samples and 20-120% stronger.