deep sea sponges? Or master builders?

[Hivetyrant]

Holy crap, this is cool...

Sponges may conjure visions of the soft and squishy, but some of those living deep beneath the sea build complex glass structures that are marvels of engineering. The sponge, from the genus Euplectella, uses a host of tricks for turning its brittle, primarily glass skeleton into strong structures, researchers report in the current issue of the journal Science. In fact, scientists are looking to the sponge for new ideas in materials science and engineering. The sponge first builds strong microscopic fibers by gluing together thin layers of glass. Then it gathers these laminated fibers together for even more strength. It's like a bundle of sticks tied together -- much harder to break than a single twig. The bundles are arranged in a grid that gets embedded into glass cement, so it becomes like reinforced concrete. People use these kinds of techniques to build structures such as skyscrapers. But Joanna Aizenberg of Bell Laboratories says what's amazing is that the sponge grows its lattice -- and its glasswork doesn't require the kind of red-hot furnace that human glass makers need. "I cannot imagine how a structure of this sophistication can be produced," says Aizenberg, the study's lead author.

Click the link to see a more detailed picture of the glass structure...

[robertthebard]

There was a lot of cool stuff on that site, beware the fireflies. Put that pen light away, she knows your not a firefly...

[Sir Goulum]

That thing, whatever you call it, looks really cool.

[Azred]

Engineers have long used sponge structure to design lightweight structures. I am more interested in the process by which the sponges, according to the article, grow glass. If it really is glass--silicon dioxide--then perhaps some new production processes can be developed.

Speaking of intricate glass structures, has anyone ever seen the double-walled glass bowls the Romans designed?