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Ocean Sponge May Be Best for Fiber Optics

TheViffer writes "ABC News is reporting that scientists say they've identified an ocean sponge, living in the darkness of the deep sea, that grows thin glass fibers capable of transmitting light better than industrial fiber optic cables used for telecommunication. 'You can actually tie a knot in these natural biological fibers and they will not break - it's really quite amazing,' said Joanna Aizenberg, who led the research at Bell Laboratories."

34 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. 7 inches long! by killthiskid · · Score: 5, Funny
    The sponge grows in deep water in the tropics. It is about a foot and a half tall with an intricate silica mesh skeleton that also serves as a home for shrimp. The glass fibers form a crown at its base that appear to help anchor the sponge to the ocean floor. The fibers are about 2 to 7 inches long and each is about the thickness of a human hair.

    Cool, fiber optics up to 7 inches long! That'll be effective! I can finally connect my computer to... uhh... to my uhh... what the hell, 7 inches! WTF!

    1. Re:7 inches long! by wolrahnaes · · Score: 5, Funny

      I did FTFA article...

      FTFA?

      Hmm...

      RFTA = Read The Fucking Article...
      FTFA = Fuck The Fucking Article?

      LOL i know it was just a typo, but it's still funny, especially with a subject of "7 inches long!" ;)

      --
      I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
    2. Re:7 inches long! by Furan · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's what she said!

    3. Re:7 inches long! by McAddress · · Score: 4, Funny
      Cool, fiber optics up to 7 inches long! That'll be effective! I can finally connect my computer to... uhh... to my uhh... what the hell, 7 inches! WTF!

      I got an email today addressing this issue. Naturally increae size

    4. Re:7 inches long! by Stonent1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Cool, fiber optics up to 7 inches long! That'll be effective! I can finally connect my computer to... uhh... to my uhh... what the hell, 7 inches!

      Bluetooth watch out!

  2. Ahh yes.. this brings back child hood memories. by matth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hrmm... what lives in a pineapple under the sea... sponge bob fiber light... wait no.. er... DOH!

    1. Re:Ahh yes.. this brings back child hood memories. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I, for one, welcome our sponge like fiber-optic transmitting overlords!

  3. Copying nature? by User+956 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are we still allowed to copy nature? I thought reverse engineering was made illegal under the DMCA.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:Copying nature? by mark-t · · Score: 4, Funny
      Nature was benevolent enough to put her stuff in the public domain.

      God, however, is another story.

    2. Re:Copying nature? by rmarll · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nature was benevolent enough to put her stuff in the public domain.

      God, however, is another story.


      God indeed. He has so many publicists I can never tell who to send my check to.

      Nature, by the way, is up to her neck in patent infringement suits from numerous Biotech firms. SCO has yet to make an official announcement reguarding any infringing soruce code but are carefully looking into the matter.

    3. Re:Copying nature? by Nucleon500 · · Score: 3, Funny
      This just in!

      In a recent press release, SCO has claimed that Linux, Windows, and, yes, even Nature herself are violating its IP. "Our pattern recognition experts, after verifying our Linux ownership, found that Windows is basically Linux sans fork(2), so we clearly own it too," says Darl McBride, SCO's CEO and intellectual property rights advocate. "But the real breakthrough was when we found crabs were finding shells with algorithms that we own."

      "It turns out that when crabs outgrow their shell, they look in ('iterate through,' in programmer's lingo) a pile ('array') of shells, and when they find one that fits, they move in," explains Yahkee group analyst and industry visionary Laura DiDio. "Although Nature's algorithm is implemented as a neural net, it has been copied line by line from SCO's malloc code. It's time people realized that while a free, massively parallel, evolving population looks good on paper, it needs to face the reality, which is that SCO will enforce it's rights."

      Open source advocates point out that crabs had perfected their algorithm long before SCO existed, but McBride says he owns the rights, because of an ammendment letter God sent him that nobody can find. He also says that although Caldera released the crab algorithm under the old BSD license, crabs do not include the copyright notice, and besides, SCO has "absolutely no idea what it's doing."

      Film at 11.
  4. Great... by MoThugz · · Score: 3, Funny

    yet another specie we can drive to extinction in the name of technology.

    But seriously, won't this sponge smell funny especially when trunking it in dark and dry spaces like under floorings?

    Just a thought.

  5. How Did They Figure This Out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    EE 1: We need a better fiberoptic cable.
    EE 2: Let's look at organisms deep in the ocean!
    EE 1: That's just crazy enough to work!

  6. In other news... by waytoomuchcoffee · · Score: 0, Funny

    SCO announced that their name actually stands for "Sponge, Cable - Optic" and asserts they evolved this function first, 23 million years ago.

    First SCO post!

  7. So... by paul248 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does anyone know where I can pick up some Athlon seeds?

  8. Re:Hint for Bell Labs researchers. by SmackCrackandPot · · Score: 4, Funny

    But do they glow in the dark in slowly changing multi-colored patterns. That's the important thing.

  9. Spongebob Glasspants? by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who makes fiberglass cables under the sea?
    SPONGEBOB GLASSPANTS!
    Flexible, clear, with sodium has he.
    SPONGEBOB GLASSPANTS!
    If flexible fibers be something you wish,
    Dive under the ocean and look for some fish!

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:Spongebob Glasspants? by deathcow · · Score: 3, Funny

      classic episode...!!

      Donovan: Atlanta was a city, landlocked, Hundreds of miles from the area we now call the atlantic ocean.

      Yet so desperate the city's desire for tourism That they moved offshore, becoming an island and an even bigger delta hub, Until the city overdeveloped and it started to sink.

      Knowing their fate, the quality people ran away: Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, Jeff Foxworthy, the guy who invented Coca Cola, the magician And the other so-called gods of our legends, though gods they were, And also Jane Fonda was there. The others chose to remain behind on their porches with their rifles And one day evolving to mermaids and sing and dance and ring in the new.

      Everyone: Hail Atlanta!

  10. Great, now Verizon... by twoallbeefpatties · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...now Verizon customer service is gonna be all, "Sorry, sir, it will take a week for us to replace the sponge."

    --
    Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
  11. But SCO owns it! by SHEENmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    SCO recently copyrighted Walrus DNA, and both creatures use the pattented Symmetric Multi-Cell technology.

    Anyone using a sea sponge better pay up and admit their blatent violation of others' IP.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  12. Re:I wonder.... by way2trivial · · Score: 5, Funny
    and if they could reproduce what spiders do, we'd have a skyhook and lightweight bulletproof jackets. and the brookly bridge suspension cables would be as thick as a pencil

    and if they could reproduce what bees' do, a flying machine that weighs half a gram and sees what's going on.

    and if they could synthesize what chickens do, you could eat things out of my ass

    just that we know it exists, doesn't mean it can be synthesized (ot should be)

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  13. Re:Yeah but by Aadain2001 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Have you thought that if we can figure a way to grow these ourselves, quickly and cheaply, that this would be what brings fiber to your doorstep? It's not cheap to make a spool of fiber cable right now, but what if we can just flip a few genetic switches in some sponges in a lab and have them start growing these things by the miles? Or even better, we learn how they make the glass, and duplicate it industrially. I can only see good things comin from this (well, maybe not for the sponge with a 3 mile long glass strand growing out of its ass, but it's a sponge, I doubt anyone at PETA will come calling on it's behalf).

    --
    Space for rent, inquire within
  14. I think Steven Wright said it best: by EvilFrog · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Sponges grow in the ocean. That kills me. Make's me wonder how much deeper it'd be if that didn't happen."

  15. A whole new meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    to "internet cleaning day"

  16. That must suck by LS · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thank god aliens haven't discovered that humans grow the best spligduglizacks.

    LS

    --
    There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
  17. Ought Oh by JoeShmoe950 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope this isn't in any way related to sponge bob :-)

  18. Technology! You're soaking in it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So once again we're sponging off Mother Nature.

  19. Re:For all our technology by DaveJay · · Score: 2, Funny

    In that case, call me when we discover the deep sea ocean creature that produces complete, piping hot, ready-to-eat In-n-Out burgers.

  20. Bell labs? by theflea · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great. 25 years from now, some company from Utah will be demanding I purchase a license to wash my dishes.

  21. Re:For all our technology by dreadnougat · · Score: 2, Funny

    So you mean all this time we were trying to build sponges when we thought we were making better networks?

  22. I, FOR ONE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    welcome our sponge overlords!

  23. what I really want to know is... by confusion · · Score: 3, Funny

    what made them try?
    "Hey Bob, we got another load of crap from the bottom on that trawl. want me to throw it overboard?"
    "Nah, let's try hooking part of it up to our router and see what happens!"

    Those clever scientists never cease to amaze me.

  24. Re:For all our technology by Mattsson · · Score: 2, Funny

    Argh! Nature will take over the world!
    Let's launch a nuclear attack an annihilate it before it annihilates us.

    --
    /.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
  25. Re:For all our technology by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 2, Funny

    Talk about saturating the network!