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."

Comments

Re:Space or oceans?

[jgardn]

I am serious. I am a physicist, so I understand the scale of the things you are trying to imagine.

Let me explain. 99% of the mass of the solar system is contained in what object? The sun. The other 1% is mostly Jupiter.

How much biomass exists on the face of the earth? How much of that is human? You'll be kidding yourself if you even think it approaches 1%.

How many of the so-called environmentally harmful chemicals found in nature are produced by humans? You'll be kidding yourself if you think that even approaches 1%.

The ocean is far huger than you give credit. The effects we have on the ocean are incredibly small compared to the effects of volcanoes, earthquakes, and the sun. The effects of all the little fishies in the ocean crapping in the ocean have a far greater impact than a couple of cruise ships dumping sewage overboard, and yet what do environmentalists freak out about?

The solar flares we are experiencing are tiny, even during the so-called solar peaks. A larger than normal solar flare would literally burn our atmosphere off. The atmosphere is such a small, delicate part of our earth that many people are wondering why we still have one.

You environmentalists run around as if humans were the most important thing in the universe. We aren't. In fact, the earth doesn't even show up as something important in the solar system. Humanity doesn't even show up in the global scale of things. Volcanoes burp more chemicals into the atmosphere than we produce in decades. That's a fact.

Those studies you site are sobering. They are proving that we humans can't do anything to prevent the next heat wave or the next ice age. They are proving that no matter what we dump into the atmosphere, it has little to no effect. They are proving that all the 70's environmental crap -- overpopulation, ice age, global warming -- is all exactly that -- crap. Why do we continue to listen to the "prophets" who wear the guise of scientist when we know they have been proven wrong and wrong again?