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Sea Sponges Master Nano-technology

Posted by michael on from the also-good-for-back-scrubbing dept.

Mick Ohrberg writes "It has been discovered that sea sponges utilizes a biomolecular mechanism to direct nanofabrication of silica to create microscopic glass fibers. It's a protein that acts as a catalyst for the formation of glass from the biomineral. What's it all lead to? Hopefully a way to achieve nanostructural fabrication at low temperatures, instead of in vacuum and at high temperatures as with current technologies."

43 comments

  1. Amazing by metalhed77 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's truly amazing what solutions there are in nature. It's a shame that we can't live less destructive and more ecologically balanced societies.

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    Photos.
    1. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Many sea sponges are little toxic waste factories. Since they can't move, they use chemical warfare to defend their territory and claim new territory. Nature behaves more like us than we might like to believe.

    2. Re:Amazing by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "It's truly amazing what solutions there are in nature. It's a shame that we can't live less destructive and more ecologically balanced societies."

      On the bright side, when things get perilous, we (as a species) step up to the challenge. The fact that people dedicate their lives to undoing that damage means that something went right somewhere.

      Wnat to help fix it? Encourage people you know to watch Discovery Channel. It's a lot easier to think about the enviorment when you respect the creatures that inhabit the sensitive areas of the planet. Need help getting them to watch it? Tell them to watch Myth Busters. It's an addictive show if you like watching stuff get built and then explode. (Bonus points if you frequent snopes.com too.)

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    3. Re:Amazing by sckeener · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also, the evolution of primates does not prepare us for 'green' policies. Primates generate waste and move on.

      It will be very hard for us to change our biology. Never have so many primates lived on the planet. In places that have had change, we have mostly failed to thrive. Easter Island is one example.

      --
      "Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
    4. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shutup fool. If you were a sea sponge, you'd be duking it out with the rest of nature at least as destructively as you do now as a human.

      Argh. Just shutup!

    5. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's truly amazing what solutions there are in nature. It's a shame that we can't live less destructive and more ecologically balanced societies.

      It's a shame we CAN, but DON'T!

    6. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It will be very hard for us to change our biology.

      We don't need to change our biology. In the mean time, we can change "our psychology".

      It's nothing to do with evolution of genes, more with evolution of culture. "We can't do anything about it" is what you hear all your life... so it must be true! And we make up names like "damn tree hugger" for people who think we CAN do something about it,

      You choose to care about something or you don't. You don't stop being a human being from 9 to 5.

  2. So now i'll be afraid by sinergy · · Score: 0, Funny

    of getting shards of glass stuck into me every time i bathe.

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    ...
  3. Spongebob learned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Spongebob learned from all the time spent fighting his microscopic nemesis Plankton.

    1. Re:Spongebob learned by ebrandsberg · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Actually, Plankton is Mr. Crab's enemy. Spongebob wanted to be friends with him, but Plankton couldn't overcome his desire to get the secret formula for the crabie pattie.

    2. Re:Spongebob learned by Tukla · · Score: 1

      Wow, that's pathetic.

      Of course, the fact that I know you are correct is even patheticer.

      Umm. I'll blame my four-year-old. Yeah, it's his fault that I know Spongebob trivia! Yeah. Yeah, that's it. :: /me backs out of the room, wishing he hadn't forgotten to dress this morning ::

  4. Glassy needles of silica made by a marine sponge by rpiquepa · · Score: 5, Informative

    For a beautiful image of glassy needles of silica made by a marine sponge, visit this page about Daniel E. Morse biomolecular research. This is the second one from the top of the page. But don't miss this other page about his current research projects.

  5. Not that unusual by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are a lot of biomineralization processes out there at the microscopic level.

    Chitons (a sea creature that looks like the ancient Trilobytes and/or women's shavers from the 70s) have iron-plated teeth: they have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that lay down magnetite crystals very precisely.

    Actually, magnetite's a big one for micoscopic biomineralization. Lots of animals have it in their brains, and use it for navigation.

    For more information on cool biomineralization, do a google search on Heinz Lowenstam's groundbreaking work, or research done by Steve Weiner, and Joe Kirschvink (this list is nothing like an exhaustive one: they just happen to be three people I knew/know who research the subject).

    There's some amazing stuff out there. Even many species of rat have iron crystals strengthening the surface of their teeth.

    --
    Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
    www.fogbound.net
    1. Re:Not that unusual by torpor · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow, that is in fact an interesting set of links ... I'm gonna blow karma just to say thanks!

      I've always wondered whether or not we can industrialize the process of calcification that most gastropods go through ... you know, sea shells and whatnot (forgive me if gastropod is not the right term).

      Wouldn't it be cool if we could coax these critters to build -massive- shells, or at least work out the processes they go through to turn the minerals and such from sea-water into hard, light, resilient shell materials?

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    2. Re:Not that unusual by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know that one of the experiments that was done involved trying to get bacteria to lay down magnetite to manufacture a higher-quality audio recording tape in the late 70s. I don't know if it was successful.

      I know there was speculation that some of the silicon-fixing bacteria could be used for making better silicon wafers. Again, this was in the early 80s, so I suspect that other technologies have improved so quickly that it's never been really seriously considered.

      Crazy stuff, though.

      OT:
      Heinz Lowenstam used to show people a demo, where he'd hold a magnet under a clear plastic box of diatomaceous earth, scraps of coral, shells, and chiton teeth. It was amazing to watch the teeth skitter out from the other debris.

      At one point, several creatures whose teeth he'd test showed iron crystals. So he tried human baby teeth (specifically mine). I'm sorry to say that I have no magnetite in my teeth, or, at least, that I didn't when I was a kid.

      --
      Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
      www.fogbound.net
    3. Re:Not that unusual by SB9876 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most people don't realize the coolness of biominerals. Although engineers can make materials with better specific properties, we are still hard pressed to be able to match their combined properties. (eg: building materials with the strength/weight ratio of wood)

      Nature tends to work with really lousy starting materials which ultimately limits the total performance of those materials. Nontheless, the performance that evolved biomaterials manage to eek out of those materials is quite impressive. For example - the calcium carbonate (chalk) mother of pearl of abalone shell has a total material toughness that is in the same range as nanostructured boron carbide. If we could nano/microstructure our materials after biominerals, a 10-20 fold increase in the materials properties of those materials would not be impossible to believe.

      Another good example is tooth enamel. Most people think that tooth enamel is some sort of featureless white material. If you actually look at enamel under magnification, after a quick acid etch to bring out the features, it looks like burlap. It's actually a 3-D woven calcium hydroxyapatite fiber matrix composed of millions of interwoven ceramic fibers that are woven in all three dimensions in a specific fashion that prevents crack propagation. Each fiber is also composed of hundreds of tiny ceramic nanofibers - each being about 40x60 nm single crystals. There are some researchers that believe these nanocrystallites can be over 1mm in length despite their thinness.

      The arrangement of the weaving of the larger fibers is uniquely tailored per tooth to maximize the overall strength of the tooth. For example, your incisors and molars and even different portions of those teeth have different weaving paterns that serve to maximize the strength of the tooth with respect to the type of chewing action that it normally sees.

    4. Re:Not that unusual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      You know what I think? Teeth suck. I'd rather have stainless steel teeth that wouldn't get cavities and couldn't crack.

    5. Re:Not that unusual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      What makes you think stainless steel teeth don't crack?

      In the old Soviet Union dentures were routinely made from stainless stell, not gold or ceramics, as was done here...

  6. Or do we? by metalhed77 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On the bright side, when things get perilous, we (as a species) step up to the challenge. The fact that people dedicate their lives to undoing that damage means that something went right somewhere.

    Or do we? Environmental damage is impossible to quantify. There is no challenge to be met other than to try our best to live in a sustainable world. Current trends point to a severe overburdening of resources. If we do wish to rise to the challenge we're going to have to do it soon. That or face a catastrophe.

    It's funny how doomsday predictions like that released by the world wildlife fund (and corroborated and endorsed by a large number of scientific organizations) a few years ago are often denounced without any empirical basis. I see a trend of always searching for a middle ground when sometimes an opposition is simply imagined in order to create said middle ground. Kind of a dialectic of wishful thinking.

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    Photos.
    1. Re:Or do we? by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Current trends point to a severe overburdening of resources. If we do wish to rise to the challenge we're going to have to do it soon. That or face a catastrophe."

      Not it defeats your point, but I don't agree that the edge to catastrophe is that steep. The way the current economic systems work, running out of resources will mean shortages of supply, and thus an increase in pricing. Oil's a good example of this. If it starts running dry, over a period of time, we'll see prices rise, until one day they're just not affordable at all. People see the warning signs and will move to alternative services. Motor companies will be quite happy to provide cars to fill this new demand. Etc.

      (Note: I only meant the above as an oversimplified illustration of the way I see it working, stripped of politics etc.)

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Or do we? by b-baggins · · Score: 1, Troll

      You mean empirical evidence other than the predictions not coming true?

      People predicting global ecologic disasters have about the same accuracy rate as people predicting the second coming.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    3. Re:Or do we? by Free_Meson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Environmental damage is impossible to quantify. There is no challenge to be met other than to try our best to live in a sustainable world. Current trends point to a severe overburdening of resources. If we do wish to rise to the challenge we're going to have to do it soon.

      Don't impose your limitations on me. Anyone trying to make an argument who starts that argument claiming that a physical phenomenon cannot be quantified should be banned from any further participation in the discussion. How can you even think about "liv[ing] in a sustainable world" or "a severe overburdening of resources" without first quantifying whatever environmental damage, if any, we are causing? Before one can speak intelligently on these subjects, he must first determine usage rates and the natural replenishment rates of our resources.

      If you looked into this a little bit, you'd be surprised. The united states, for example, supposedly recaptures more CO2 than it produces. How is it easy for a bunch of big bad evil fat fedgov americans to do this? Easy: we cut down an insane number of trees, turn them into paper that goes into our vast corporate wastelands, and plant replacement trees. Environmentalism, real environmentalism, isn't about making a pretty countryside, it's about managing our resources and it is fundamentally a quantitative pursuit.

      As for these doomsday predictions, they are often based on faulty methods (i.e. not counting newly planted forest but counting the forest area that was cut down before it; wild, untestable estimates of extinction rates that also ignore the creation of new species; the assumption that there will be no future improvements in the productive capacity of a unit of land or labor.). These predictions have been around for more than 200 years (See Malthus, T.R.) and, more than anything else, are created by researchers who ignore facts to push their agenda.

      I'm an environmentalist. I'm staunchly opposed to unstainable development. Unlike most environmentalists, though, I don't assume that anything that a corporation does, or anything that is profitable for anyone, is detrimental to the environment. The human effect on the environment is incredibly small, though. Even in areas such as the Amazon rain forest where acre after acre of forest are burned, it's unlikely that a substantial number of "meaningful" species are extinguished. The species that are hurt the most by these activities are the big, furry, marketable ones. The most important species -- the insects that live in the forest and the myriad plants that live on and around the trees -- can and do coexist in the resulting semiagricultural land. Would it be better if the forest weren't burned down? yes. Are we really threatened in any way because we lose 1 obscure, undiscovered new-world monkey species per year? no. Are trees good? yes. will the forest retake the burned area after it loses its usefuless for cattle farming? probably. Should we do something to slow the destruction of the rainforest? yes. Is there a viable alternative for every wouldbe farmer/rancher in the area that would bring equal or better ROI? not that I know of.

      Unfortunately the marketing done by the WWF has backfired, and they've been taken over by fake environmentalists, more worried about the real-life versions of their snow leopard beanie babies than studying or protecting the environment. They also have suffered from the mistaken idea that "the environment" is a static thing. Birds of prey are moving into cities and using parks as hunting grounds and skyscrapers as nesting sites. A species of cockroach in NYC has adapted to feed off of the insulation on wires in electronics. Bears, racoons, and skunks regularly venture deep into cities to forage through trashcans. The environment is always changing, but it is this constant change that creates the variation in species that environmentalists should seek to protect and promote.

      Are there polutants that should be kept out of th

    4. Re:Or do we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      From a scientific viewpoint the edge of catastrophe could be that steep. For example, in nuclear physics there's something known as a critical mass. Once you have a critical mass of fissionable material you can have a runaway reaction on your hands. Same thing with the environment. Tip the scales too much in the wrong direction, and they may very well never stop tipping.

  7. Timescales by metalhed77 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Thanks for calling me on that. The problem really is that timescales are hard to measure. The problem is that the market is not perfect. The oil companies are extending their life through washington lobbies and other techniques that employ their hegemonic position. Problems arise when a transition cannot, for whatever reason, be made fast enough. Civilizations come and go; let's not pretend that we're an exception.

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    Photos.
  8. Troll? Hippie, maybe. But troll?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he's just makin an observation

    1. Re:Troll? Hippie, maybe. But troll?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah... Whoever Modded that as a troll needs their head checked.

      In fact I think that comment is insightful and sparked an intelligent, thought provoking conversation. mmmmmm.

  9. Other bionanotech silica sources by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Informative

    More than a few organisms use silica to create microscopic structual elements. These include horsetails (Equisetum), the stinging tree of Queensland and diatoms.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Other bionanotech silica sources by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 1

      Ah Queensland - filled with the wait-a-while (also known as the Lawyer Vine) and stinging trees.

      I'll never forget it.

      --
      Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
  10. Forget nano-fabrication, lets industrialize them! by torpor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Imagine if we could make massive sea-sponges that were capable of producing glass fibres on a massive scale, suitable for industrialized processes ...

    All that sea-water. All that glass. Put it together, and you can make one hell of a city. Provide 3rd-World deserts with raw materials for building greenhouses. etc.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  11. Folding @ Home by spin2cool · · Score: 4, Informative

    All the more reason to participage in the Folding @ Home project. This project is helping researchers understand and develop models of protein folding, so that someday, sythetic enzymes that create useful products may be a reality.

  12. This is old, if cool, news. by SB9876 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, not only was this a Slashdot story a couple months ago (not that this is anything new) this is really old news. I saw Dan Morse give a talk about 5 years ago about the details of what's described above. Seriously - the silicateins were ID'd and characterized about 6-7 years ago and by the time I saw him talk, they were already generating new peptides designed from scratch.

    Coming from a research group that's done similar work to the Morse group in the past, this is cool but rather old work.

    The silica fibers generated by sponges are high quality but probably useless for standard telcom use since they contain relatively high levels of water which strongly absorbs in the bands that telecoms transmit at. However, the layered structure that these fibers have tend to have much better fracture resistance than pure silica fibers which might make them useful in things like box-to-box connectors for in-home use where the cables going to get stepped on or hit with some regularity.

  13. Am I the only one by Discoflamingo13 · · Score: 3, Funny

    who read this article title as "Sponges Master Nano-technology, Humanity Doomed"? Maybe I'm just having a Morbo moment. Well, In the spirit of "I, for one, accept our new nanotech sponge overlords yadda yadda", here's Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs

  14. Re:Forget nano-fabrication, lets industrialize the by Orne · · Score: 1


    What, like a Beowulf Cluster?

  15. Article is a dupe by Andy_R · · Score: 1

    Quite a proud moment for me, my first dupe. I submitted this one over 3 years ago...

    * 2001-01-04 16:31:48 Forget fiber optics, use Marine Worm Spines! (articles,news) (accepted)

    For some reason it's not showing up when I search the archives though.

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    1. Re:Article is a dupe by zero_offset · · Score: 0, Redundant
      For some reason it's not showing up when I search the archives though.

      A lot of "archived" articles have gone missing. I realized this last year when I searched for a comment which I happened to print when it was current. (It was totally off-topic -- the article was about dark matter or something like that -- but some guy wrote a fantastic step-by-step guide to making perfect seared fillet mignon.) After that I checked a few times, and here and there stories apparently just "disappear" -- even ones that have huge amounts of activity.

      --

      Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005

  16. Mod parent up and down! by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 1

    This is one of the most Insightful Off-Topic posts that I have read all week.

    (Actually, the whole thread (except for the root) is off-topic, so just mod the parent up, because it's on-topic in the context of this off-topic (except for the root) thread.)

    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  17. Re: The Stainless Steel Teeth's Revenge by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'd rather have stainless steel teeth
    There are several disadvantages to stainless steel teeth:
    1. They pick up fingerprints very easily.
    2. If you have stainless steel teeth, you can never be the super-villian, only one of his henchmen, and when you finally get the (somewhat geeky) girl, the two of you end up being stranded on a rapidly-deteriorating space station.
      (You do get rescued later, though.)
    3. You may pick up a radio station playing hip-hop, or, even worse, Rush Limbaugh.
    4. People may complain that you have "stainless steel" breath.
    5. When getting an MRI, your head may get ripped off.
    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  18. coincidence by Transcendent · · Score: 2, Funny

    The chair of nanotechnology at my university was taken over by some guy named Squarepants.... Bob Squarepants a few months ago.

    Hmph... wonder if it's related.

  19. I wish this was an article on stainless steel teet by nounderscores · · Score: 1

    damn! where are my modpoints!?!

  20. Obligatory sea-sponge quote. by c.emmertfoster · · Score: 1

    You forget, I witnessed a mass sponge migration.

    --
    We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!