- Venus' Flower Basket
Taxobox
name = Venus' Flower Basket
image_width = 200px
regnum =Animal ia
phylum = Porifera
classis =Hexactenellida
familia =Euplectellidae
genus = "Euplectella "
species = "E. aspergillum"
binomial = "Euplectella aspergillum"
binomial_authority = Owen, 1841The Venus' Flower Basket, or "Euplectella aspergillum", is the only
Hexactenellida in the phylum Porifera to be used in hobbyists'aquarium s. This is becauseHexactinellid sponges are mainly deep ocean sponges that are not suitable for domestic aquarium environments. In traditionalAsia n cultures, this particular sponge was given as a wedding gift due to the fact that certain bioluminescent shrimp tend to form asymbiosis with them. The sponge houses two small shrimp, a male and a female, who live out their lives inside the sponge. They breed, and when their offspring are tiny, the offspring escape to find a Venus Flower Basket of their own. The shrimp inside of the basket clean it, and in return, the basket provides food for the shrimp by trapping it in its fiberglass-like strands, and then releasing it into the body of the sponge for the shrimp. It is also speculated that the light given off by the sponge may attract other small organisms which the shrimp eat.They were also extremely popular in Victorian England, and one could easily fetch five guineas, equivalent to over £500 today.
Bio-inspiration
optical fibers, and solar cells
The glassy fibers that attach the sponge to the ocean floor, 5-20 cm long and thin as human hair, are of interest to
fiber optics researchers. The sponge extractssilicic acid from seawater and converts it intosilica , then forms it into an elaborate skeleton of glass fibers. (Other sponges such as theorange puffball sponge can also produce glass biologically.) The current manufacturing process for optical fibers requires high temperatures and produces a brittle fiber. A low-temperature process for creating and arranging such fibers, inspired by sponges, could offer more control over the optical properties of the fibers. These nano-structures are also potentially useful for the creation of more efficient, low-cost solar cells.material strength
these sponges skeletons have amazing geometric configurations, which have been extensively studied for their stiffness, yield strength, and minimal crack propagation. An aluminum tube (aluminum and glass have similar elastic modulus) of equal length, effective thickness, and radius, but homogeneously distributed, has 1/100th the stiffness
References
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/20/national1718EDT0670.DTL] "Glassy sponge has better fiber optics than man-made", William McCall, AP, August 20, 2003
* [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0307843101v1.pdf] "Biological glass fibers: Correlation between optical and structural properties" Joanna Aizenberg et al. PNAS 2004
* [http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/17726/] "Silicon and Sun," Kevin Bullis, Technology Review Nov./Dec. 2006
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