Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive analysis of biominerals, in particular phosphates and carbonates of calcium. The book begins with a discussion of the theories of solid state chemistry and thermodynamics of ionic solid solutions and applies these theories to show how physiological constituents like sodium, magnesium, carbonate, chloride, fluoride, lead, or strontium influence the formation, stability, and solubility of calcium phosphates. The results of this discussion are then applied to a critical evaluation of data regarding minerals in bone, dentin, and tooth enamel, their formation during growth and turn-over, their stability under physiological conditions and their breakdown under pathological conditions. These principles are also applied to pathological calcifications such as renal calculi, arterial wall calcifications, chondrocalcinosis, dental calculus and salivary stones. A similar approach is used as the authors discuss carbonations such as calcite, dolomite, and aragonite. The book also includes an extensive analysis of the advantageous effects of magnesium supplementation. The wealth of knowledge in this extensive treatise of biominerals is valuable to medical, dental and ecological biologists, as well as scientists and clinicians in the fields of osteoporosis, bone diseases, caries, renal stone disease, parodontology and nutrition.