Some studies have linked the inhalation of titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide dust to cancer in animals, but it has not been proven in humans.

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Much work is left to get the proteins producing the kind of silicon or titanium dioxides that could run a computer or power your house, but the dream is to have synthetic creations that organically produce what would normally need a mining expedition -- imagine something akin to the glass-like Venus' Flower Basket sponge (pictured above) sitting in an Intel factory.

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Comprising of seven tiny layers, each 50 to 100 nanometers in height, the coating is made of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle.

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Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara plan to break that silence with genetically engineered proteins that can make silicon dioxide or titanium dioxide structures like those used in the computer chips and solar cells that we hold dear.

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The system the researchers tested used a type of solar cell known as dye-sensitized solar cells, a lightweight and inexpensive type where the active layer is composed of titanium dioxide, rather than the silicon used in conventional solar cells.

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They look bulky but weigh little, because he constructs them from lightweight materials such as titanium, carbon nanofiber and alusic (a blend of aluminum and silicon carbide).

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The dye molecules themselves are bound to tiny particles of titanium dioxide, a less-famous (but cheaper) semiconductor than silicon, and the whole assembly is immersed in an electrolyte and sandwiched between two electrodes.

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