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Venus' Flower Basket
The Venus' flower basket (''Euplectella aspergillum'') is a glass sponge in the phylum Porifera. It is a marine sponge found in the deep waters of the Pacific ocean, usually at depths below 500 meters. Like other sponges, they feed by filtering sea water to capture plankton and marine snow. Similar to other glass sponges, they build their skeletons out of silica, which forms a unique lattice structure of spicules. The sponges are usually between 10 cm and 30 cm tall, and their bodies act as refuge for their mutualist shrimp partners. This body structure is of great interest in materials science as the optical and mechanical properties are in some ways superior to man-made materials. Little is known regarding their reproduction habits, however fluid dynamics of their body structure likely influence reproduction and it is hypothesized that they may be hermaphroditic. Habitat Venus' flower baskets are found in the western Pacific Ocean nearby the Philippine Islands. Other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owen produced a vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word '' Dinosauria'' (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile"). An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species''. Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited many issues of its journal – then known as ''The Microscopic Journal''. Owen also c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spongocoel
A spongocoel (), also called paragaster (or paragastric cavity), is the large, central cavity of sponges. Water enters the spongocoel through hundreds of tiny pores ( ostia) and exits through the larger opening (osculum The osculum (plural "oscula") is an excretory structure in the living sponge, a large opening to the outside through which the current of water exits after passing through the spongocoel. Wastes diffuse into the water and the water is pumped thr ...). Depending on the body plan of the sponge (which can be asconoid, syconoid, or leuconoid), the spongocoel could be a simple interior space of the sponge or a complexly branched inner structure. Regardless of body plan or class, the spongocoel is lined with choanocytes, which have flagellum, flagella that push water through the spongocoel, creating a current. The spongocoel is lined by a variety of cell types, each having a unique function: * porocytes – line the pores of the sponge and are the structure through wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biomimetics
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησις ('' mīmēsis''), imitation, from μιμεῖσθαι (''mīmeisthai''), to imitate, from μῖμος (''mimos''), actor. A closely related field is bionics. Living organisms have evolved well-adapted structures and materials over geological time through natural selection. Biomimetics has given rise to new technologies inspired by biological solutions at macro and nanoscales. Humans have looked at nature for answers to problems throughout their existence. Nature has solved engineering problems such as self-healing abilities, environmental exposure tolerance and resistance, hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing solar energy. History One of the early examples of biomimicry was the study of birds to enable human flight. Alth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elastic Modulus
An elastic modulus (also known as modulus of elasticity) is the unit of measurement of an object's or substance's resistance to being deformed elastically (i.e., non-permanently) when a stress is applied to it. The elastic modulus of an object is defined as the slope of its stress–strain curve in the elastic deformation region: A stiffer material will have a higher elastic modulus. An elastic modulus has the form: :\delta \ \stackrel\ \frac where stress is the force causing the deformation divided by the area to which the force is applied and strain is the ratio of the change in some parameter caused by the deformation to the original value of the parameter. Since strain is a dimensionless quantity, the units of \delta will be the same as the units of stress. Specifying how stress and strain are to be measured, including directions, allows for many types of elastic moduli to be defined. The three primary ones are: # ''Young's modulus'' (E) describes tensile and compressive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tethya Aurantium
''Tethya aurantium'', also known as the golf ball sponge or orange puffball sponge, is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Tethyidae. It is spherical in shape, with a warty surface, and grows to about 10 cm in diameter. Oscula are present on the upper surface. The surface has sharp protruding spicules which can cause skin irritation if touched. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea and North Eastern Atlantic Ocean, and from southern Namibia round the southern African coast to KwaZulu-Natal, usually on shallow reefs.Branch, G.M., Branch, M.L, Griffiths, C.L. and Beckley, L.E. 2010. ''Two Oceans: a guide to the marine life of southern Africa'' It was first described by Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery ... in 1766 as ''Alcyonium aur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silicic Acid
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and most abundant families of materials, existing as a compound of several minerals and as a synthetic product. Notable examples include fused quartz, fumed silica, silica gel, opal and aerogels. It is used in structural materials, microelectronics (as an electrical insulator), and as components in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Structure In the majority of silicates, the silicon atom shows tetrahedral coordination, with four oxygen atoms surrounding a central Si atomsee 3-D Unit Cell. Thus, SiO2 forms 3-dimensional network solids in which each silicon atom is covalently bonded in a tetrahedral manner to 4 oxygen atoms. In contrast, CO2 is a linear molecule. The starkly different structures of the dioxide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiber Optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data transfer rates) than electrical cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss; in addition, fibers are immune to electromagnetic interference, a problem from which metal wires suffer. Fibers are also used for illumination and imaging, and are often wrapped in bundles so they may be used to carry light into, or images out of confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are also used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors and fiber lasers. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sponge Spicules Of Euplectella
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal Marine life, sea life, or ocean life is the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the salt water of seas or oceans, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. ... clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are Multicellular organism, multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of Cell (biology), cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can cellular differentiation, transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous system, nervous, digestive system, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutual Symbiosis
Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. The organisms, each termed a symbiont, must be of different species. In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms". The term was subject to a century-long debate about whether it should specifically denote mutualism, as in lichens. Biologists have now abandoned that restriction. Symbiosis can be obligatory, which means that one or more of the symbionts depend on each other for survival, or facultative (optional), when they can generally live independently. Symbiosis is also classified by physical attachment. When symbionts form a single body it is called conjunctive symbiosis, while all other arrangements are called disjunctive symbiosis."symbiosis." Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spongicolidae
Spongicolidae is a family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ... of glass sponge shrimps in the order Decapoda. There are about 8 genera and more than 40 described species in Spongicolidae. Genera These eight genera belong to the family Spongicolidae: * '' Engystenopus'' Alcock & Anderson, 1894 * '' Globospongicola'' Komai & Saito, 2006 * '' Microprosthema'' Stimpson, 1860 * '' Paraspongicola'' de Saint Laurent & Cleva, 1981 * '' Spongicola'' de Haan, 1844 * '' Spongicoloides'' Hansen, 1908 * '' Spongiocaris'' Bruce & Baba, 1973 * † '' Jilinicaris'' Schram, Shen, Vonk & Taylor, 2000 References Further reading * * * Decapods Decapod families {{decapod-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inquiline
In zoology, an inquiline (from Latin ''inquilinus'', "lodger" or "tenant") is an animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of an animal of another species. For example, some organisms such as insects may live in the homes of gophers or the garages of humans and feed on debris, fungi, roots, etc. The most widely distributed types of inquiline are those found in association with the nests of social insects, especially ants and termites – a single colony may support dozens of different inquiline species. The distinctions between parasites, social parasites, and inquilines are subtle, and many species may fulfill the criteria for more than one of these, as inquilines do exhibit many of the same characteristics as parasites. However, parasites are specifically ''not'' inquilines, because by definition they have a deleterious effect on the host species, while inquilines have not been confirmed to do so. In the specific case of termites, the term "'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
