I don’t understand it at all. What are they even made out of?
In: 465
Bi-valve molluscs, such as clams and oysters make pearls as a response to an irritant. When something gets inside their shell, like a grain of sand or a sharp piece of shell, it can irritate their soft flesh. They secrete a substance called nacre to surround the irritant so it stops bothering them. They secrete it in layers around the irritant and it hardens into a smooth ball, and that’s what pearls are.
Nacre is actually just a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, which is an extremely common substance. Chalk is calcium carbonate, as are many over-the-counter antacids like Tums or Rolaids.
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