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Fibre-optical features of a glass sponge

Nature volume 424, pages 899–900 (2003)Cite this article

Some superior technological secrets have come to light from a deep-sea organism.

Abstract

Modern technology cannot yet compete with some of the sophisticated optical systems possessed by biological organisms1,2,3. Here we show that the spicules of the deep-sea 'glass' sponge Euplectella have remarkable fibre-optical properties, which are surprisingly similar to those of commercial telecommunication fibres — except that the spicules themselves are formed under normal ambient conditions and have some technological advantages over man-made versions.

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Figure 1: Structure and fibre-optical properties of spicules in the sponge Euplectella.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, 07974, New Jersey, USA

    Vikram C. Sundar, John L. Grazul & Joanna Aizenberg

  2. OFS, Murray Hill, 07974, New Jersey, USA

    Andrew D. Yablon

  3. Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Micha Ilan

Authors
  1. Vikram C. Sundar
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  2. Andrew D. Yablon
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  3. John L. Grazul
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  4. Micha Ilan
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  5. Joanna Aizenberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joanna Aizenberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Sundar, V., Yablon, A., Grazul, J. et al. Fibre-optical features of a glass sponge. Nature 424, 899–900 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424899a

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