Fibre optics researchers are a bunch of spongers

Bell Labs researchers believe a deep-sea sponge holds clues to building better fibre-optic cables.

A Bell Labs team headed by Joanna Aisenberg has already transmitted light through the ultra-thin, glasslike fibres that grow inside the sponge, known as a "Venus flower basket," a representative said.

Now the trick is to discover how the fibres grow at temperatures near freezing and are flexible enough to be tied into a knot, the representative said. Fibre-optic cables that communications companies use are very brittle, because they are created using extremely high heat.

"This is purely science right now," a Bell Labs representative said. "The hope is engineers will look at the sponge and draw inspiration."

The research findings, to be published on Thursday in the journal Nature, are part of a burgeoning scientific field that is mining nature for new techniques to create better technology.

Biomimetics, as the field is known, has already yielded such advances as new surgical techniques that use a glowing jellyfish protein and laundry soap that uses an enzyme from bacteria. Two years ago, Aisenberg discovered that a starfish, the brittlestar, is covered with lenses that act as a single eye. She has since built crystals based on the model provided by the starfish. The hope is that one day, such crystals could be used in communication networks and nanotechnology.

Ben Charny writes for News.com