This is a review of the surface chemistry of bone mineral and its synthetic counterpart hydroxyapatite. Small-angle x-ray scattering and low-temperature nitrogen adsorption measurements show bone mineral surfaces range from 100 to 200 m2/g. The heats of adsorption of small molecules on bone and apatite surfaces show that these materials have polarizing surfaces which form strong bonds with polar and polarizable molecules. Water is hydrogen bonded to these surfaces with energies ranging from 23 Kcal/mol, for low coverage, to 11 Kcal/mol after two full layers; the latter value shows that after two monolayers the water is bonded as strongly to the solution as it is to the apatite surface. Stearic acid in cyclohexane adsorbs on bone and apatite surfaces in a closed-packed manner with the straight-chain molecules in parallel array with the end carboxyl groups hydrogen bonded to surface electronegative ions. Synthetic hydroxyapatite has long been used in chromatography because of the bonding capacity apatite surface has for certain proteins and polynucleotides. The metabolic interplay between bone mineral and the body results from the high magnitude and high reactivity of the mineral surface.