Light-transmitting Fibers

a macro view of glass sponge resembles a network of fine glass threads

Biological Strategy

AskNature Team

Image: Dmitry Grigoriev / Shutterstock / Some rights reserved

Distribute Energy

Many forms of energy are naturally available, including kinetic, potential, thermal, elastic, radiant, chemical, and more. All living systems require energy to carry out their many activities. Energy isn’t a physical object that can be held, so it also can’t be pushed, pulled, or carried. However, it can be transmitted or transformed. For example, the golden-scale snail has a tri-layered shell that dissipates, or transfers, forces from a predator biting down on it, thereby minimizing damage to its soft body inside the shell.

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Send Light Signals in the Non-visible Spectrum

Living systems interact with each other and with their environments to gain information, which is sometimes in the electromagnetic spectrum. Wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum are also called the non-visible light spectrum because humans cannot detect them with the naked eye. These include ultraviolet (UV) light, infrared (IR) light, radio waves, and other wavelengths, which living systems can use to send signals. Those signals must not only be targeted to other living systems that can detect them, they must be energy- and material-efficient. This creates both challenges and opportunities. For example, some web-weaving spiders add UV-reflective silk strands to their webs to keep birds and bumblebees (which can see UV light) from crashing into and destroying them. But because the insects the spiders feed on they can’t see UV wavelengths, they fly into the web.

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The glass-like fibers of a glass sponge transmit light better than our fiber optics, yet are made from natural materials and at ambient temperatures.

“The thin glassy fibers protruding from the base of the Venus flower basket sponge are better able to transmit light than industrial fiber optic cables used for telecommunication. Additionally, the sponge’s fibers are more flexible than the man-made variety. The sponge produces its fibers at low temperatures using natural materials. Trace amounts of sodium are added to the fibers to increase their ability to conduct light. The high temperature required for the manufacture of industrial fiber optics precludes additives such as sodium, and yields a fiber that is brittle and easily broken. Scientists hope, however, to mimic the Venus flower basket’s fiber manufacture process, developing a way to produce fiber optics at ambient temperatures.” (Courtesy of the Biomimicry Guild)

Glass Skeleton Is Tough Yet Flexible

Venus's flower-basket

The silica skeleton of the Venus’s flower-basket sea sponge is tough and stable because multiple levels of organization each help to manage forces.

Last Updated March 24, 2020

References

“Modern technology cannot yet compete with some of the sophisticated optical systems possessed by biological organisms^1,2,3. 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.” (Sundar et al., 2003:899)

Journal article