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Undersea sponge has fiber optic cables beat
Reuters ^ | 8/20/03 | Reuters Staff

Posted on 08/20/2003 11:54:57 AM PDT by Pro-Bush

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Fiber optic cables -- an amazing invention showing how clever people can be, right? Maybe so, but nature got there first, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. A deep-sea sponge with a "skeleton" made out of silica did it first and did it better, the researchers said.

It has spicules -- skeletal structures -- that look very much like modern fiber optic cables, except they don't crack, the team at Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU - News) in Murray Hill, New Jersey, reported.

Fiber optic cables are long strands of pure glass about the diameter of a human hair that carry digital information over long distances. They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and used to transmit light signals.

"Modern technology cannot yet compete with some of the sophisticated optical systems possessed by biological organisms," Joanna Aizenberg and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Nature.

"Here we show that the spicules of the deep-sea 'glass' sponge Euplectella have remarkable fiber-optical properties, which are surprisingly similar to those of commercial telecommunication fibers -- except that the spicules themselves are formed under normal ambient conditions and have some technological advantages over man-made versions."

The little sponge, known commonly as Venus's flower basket, has an intricately latticed silica cage where pairs of shrimp go to mate.

The spicules are about the same size and shape as fiber optic cables, they wrote. They are made of the same material and bend light in a similar manner.

But while fiber-optic cables often crack and break, the sponge's spicules have built-in braces that toughen the structure.

Studying it could help scientists figure out better ways to make fiber-optic cables and networks, the researchers suggested.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Technical
KEYWORDS: fiberoptic; fiberoptics
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To: 1rudeboy
One paleo coming up.
21 posted on 08/20/2003 12:37:30 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: Pro-Bush
if we are natural then anything we make is natural.
22 posted on 08/20/2003 12:38:49 PM PDT by CJ Wolf
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
23 posted on 08/20/2003 12:45:32 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Lazamataz
And in related news:

Undersea Sponge (USSP) +3.25 (+7.6%)
Lucent Technologies (LU) -0.71 (-37.5%)

Ha Ha! I can hear my FA thinking up a strategy now.

24 posted on 08/20/2003 1:05:32 PM PDT by SquirrelKing (Don't sweat the petty things...don't pet the sweaty things.)
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To: Pro-Bush
LOL

Excellent!

After a quick & dirty SWOT I propose Lucent use the Promotion P and go after a Opinion Leader like perhaps the marine sponge (http://www.pirweb.org/sponge.htm) and secure their endorsement through sponsorship. The payoff could be huge if other sponges are persuaded to use Lucents Fiber Optics. Why settle for just the human market?

-- lates
-- jrawk
25 posted on 08/20/2003 1:45:17 PM PDT by jrawk
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To: Pro-Bush
While the sponge may have designed a better fibre optic cable (Betamax) they failed to file a patent for their design.

The current LUCENT (VHS) version wins out because the patent belongs to them.

26 posted on 08/20/2003 2:06:56 PM PDT by Chewbacca (Stay out of debt. Pay cash. When you run out of cash, stop buying things.)
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To: Chewbacca; jrawk
While the sponge may have designed a better fibre optic cable (Betamax) they failed to file a patent for their design.

Ah man, why did have to be such a kill-joy? We had a good thing going here.
27 posted on 08/20/2003 3:11:33 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
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To: bangor505
Do they make a PM sponge?
28 posted on 08/20/2003 3:16:26 PM PDT by Redcloak (All work and no FReep makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no FReep make s Jack a dul boy. Allwork an)
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To: Pro-Bush
that is the difference buddy.

My goodness, isn't our back up?  When
a beaver builds a dam, isn't that natural?
When a human builds one, it isn't?
29 posted on 08/20/2003 5:35:45 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: gcruse
I see nature can be interpreted many ways. A fiber optic cable that Lucent builds using a variety of technologies does not naturally occur in nature. Using your definition everything is natural.

Why do some food product claim that they are all natural?

It is because there are no preseratives, which are not natural.

You see, two different interpretations of the same word.
30 posted on 08/20/2003 7:10:17 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
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To: Pro-Bush
"Why do some food product claim that they are all natural?"
Because people like you dont understand things and believe the claims and buy it because it's "natural".
31 posted on 08/21/2003 12:38:11 PM PDT by CJ Wolf
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To: CJ Wolf
You're too funny.
32 posted on 08/21/2003 1:10:39 PM PDT by Pro-Bush (Awareness is what you know before you know anything else.)
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To: Pro-Bush
EVERYTHING of this earth, or the known Universe for that matter, is natural. A skyscraper, or a car, is no more "unnatural" than an anthill, termite mound or a crab fitting a shell on its back.

Degree of sophistication or tool using capability has absolutly no relationship to "naturalness" and to imply that creations of man are unnatural wades one into the greenpeace logic zone...
33 posted on 08/21/2003 1:24:25 PM PDT by Axenolith (Scratch and sniff here -------> <--------(This really works))
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To: DainBramage
I wonder which costs less when you wrongle out 20 or 30 feet of it with the 8 inch hollow stem auger :)
34 posted on 08/21/2003 1:27:01 PM PDT by Axenolith (Scratch and sniff here -------> <--------(This really works))
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To: Axenolith
(Scratch and sniff here ------->( ! )<-------- (This really works))

Ewwwe! That's un-natural!

35 posted on 08/21/2003 1:27:03 PM PDT by CJ Wolf
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To: Axenolith; CJ Wolf
nat·u·ral
(nchr-l, nchrl) adj.
1) Present in or produced by nature: a natural pearl.
2) Of, relating to, or concerning nature: a natural environment.
3) Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of nature: a natural death.
4)Not produced or changed artificially
5)Characterized by spontaneity and freedom from artificiality
6)Not altered, treated, or disguised

Your "everything is natural" theory is a bunch of crap.
36 posted on 08/21/2003 1:41:03 PM PDT by Pro-Bush (Awareness is what you know before you know anything else.)
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To: Pro-Bush
it's not a theory, bada bing!
37 posted on 08/21/2003 1:45:14 PM PDT by CJ Wolf
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To: Pro-Bush
"Modern technology cannot yet compete with some of the sophisticated optical systems possessed by biological organisms," Joanna Aizenberg and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Nature.

"Here we show that the spicules of the deep-sea 'glass' sponge Euplectella have remarkable fiber-optical properties, which are surprisingly similar to those of commercial telecommunication fibers -- except that the spicules themselves are formed under normal ambient conditions and have some technological advantages over man-made versions."

I don't suppose they actually tested these "spicules" to see what their optical properties are?

You know, dimetrical uniformity, cross-sectional index of refraction profile, decibel-meter transparency - stuff like that?

Yet they make the statement that modern tech cannot compete?

Somehow, that gets my back up. Dunno quite why.

38 posted on 08/21/2003 2:01:14 PM PDT by nightdriver
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To: nightdriver
The Jornal Nature just pulled these claims out of there ass for public comsumption.
39 posted on 08/21/2003 2:09:03 PM PDT by Pro-Bush (Awareness is what you know before you know anything else.)
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To: Pro-Bush
Jornal=Journal
40 posted on 08/21/2003 2:09:42 PM PDT by Pro-Bush (Awareness is what you know before you know anything else.)
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