Sea Sponge's "Structural Principles" Inspire "Design Strategy"

Sponges are among the earliest multicellular animals in the fossil record. They appear at first glance to be randomly organized, full of holes, asymmetric, and lacking complex organs. Yet one particular sea sponge has secrets that make engineers drool with envy. The Venus Flower Basket (Euplectella aspergillum) mastered fiber optics and force-absorbing building materials long before physicists and architects dreamed of such things.

Researchers at Brown University and Harvard University's Wys...