> The key here is scale. What works in inches often falls apart at feet

Does that mean we could increase the orders of magnitude if we made it smaller? Lots of tiny stuff needs mechanical support. And lots of folded small things agglomerated is another way to say biology.

Closer to "mineralogy", plenty of things are both smaller and tougher (on this "support its own weight" metric) than cells or proteins with their squishy folding rules.

Even if we include things like hydroxyapatite in teeth, or even lignin, those are more like byproducts of biology than active biology itself.