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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."

6 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. this just in .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    women may be best for teh sexx0rz!!!

    Last Poast?

  2. bunghole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
  3. Re:Ahh yes.. this brings back child hood memories. by diesel_jackass · · Score: -1, Troll

    if i wanted to hear from an asshole, i would've farted.

  4. Re:For all our technology by NakedChick · · Score: -1, Troll

    It's no surprise. I use sponges in all sorts of weird ways. Why not fiber optics too. But what do I know? I'm just a naked chick.

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    So I'm naked. So what?
  5. Re:Space or oceans? by jgardn · · Score: -1, Troll

    Bottom line, idiot, is that humankind has absolutely no effect on the ocean compared to what the earth itself and the sun dish out.

    Imagine the sun flared. Just a little one. What could happen to the earth? Why, the entire atmosphere could be blown away, and the oceans could dry up. The deserts would turn to glass. All from a small solar flare. You think nuclear weapons are dangerous? The sun is far more dangerous. And we have absolutely no control over it.

    What about a volcano? How many megatons of carbon dioxide and other noxious chemicals does that dump into the atmosphere, not to mention the pollution in the oceans?

    Slight variations in the amount of radiation the sun puts off has tremendous effects on the climate here on earth. The algae blooms are there because the sun put them there. We had nothing to do with it.

    You are an idiot. spouting out half-truths and whining about it. Go crack a real science book, not the pseudo-crap they are passing off in high school today. Go learn about how big the sun really is, and how dangerous it really it. Go take a look at how much water there is in the ocean, and try and figure out how much pollution we could actually dump in there if we really tried. You'll see that we would have barely any effect at all.

    And how do you pillage the ocean? The natural resources in the ocean are going to die anyway. Rather than allowing the fish to float to the bottom of the ocean and rot and pollute the ocean, we are harvesting the excess every year so that we can feed a starving world. How is that pillaging?

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    The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
  6. Re:Space or oceans? by jgardn · · Score: 0, Troll

    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?

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    The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.