The Venus flower basket glass sponge – a unique creature living in the depths of the Pacific ocean – is the object of the new study published recently in the renowned journal Nature. This collaborative work, co-led by Prof. Giacomo Falcucci of Tor Vergata University of Rome and our own Prof. Maurizio Porfiri, has focused on utilizing complex mathematical simulations to analyze the flow of fluids around and through the intricate structure of the sponge.
The results of this research shed more light on the organism’s environmental adaptations and may help engineer more optimized and versatile structures, e.g. high-rise buildings, low-drag novel structures for ships, or fuselages of airplanes.
Tandon School of Engineering issued a press release describing the study – read it here.
Read more details on the results on Nature’s page here.
Read the full paper “Extreme flow simulations reveal skeletal adaptations of deep-sea sponges” here.
Image credit: Giacomo Falcucci et al.