Optical Computers with Starfish Components?

David M. Sweeney writes: "Salon has posted a news item that states, "Rows of tiny crystals that armor the skeleton of a certain kind of starfish act as an array of microscopic lenses that would be difficult for even the best engineer to duplicate, researchers say." These lenses have a number of possible applications in computing and telecom. Wonder what PETA will have to say when Intel opens its first starfish farm..."

Very nice, but what about switching?

[adoll]

The article talks about the starfish's use of microscopic lenses that are beyond human's present ability to manufacture. That is great, but the key problem with optical computing is the multiplexor/demultiplexor switching issue. These lenses won't fix that. Here is a link to a SciAm story [sciam.com] that highlights some of the things folks are working on for optical computing (near bottom of article).

Something these critters body parts may help with is: "One of the problems optical computers have faced is a lack of accuracy; for instance, these devices have practical limits of eight to 11 bits of accuracy in basic operations. "

But this still won't give us routing solutions for optical packets through multiplexors!

-AD

Re:Very nice, but what about switching?

[jwakko]

I agree - I don't quite see the connection to optical computing here (but maybe someone who does could enlighten us?).

However, I bet this lens could be useful in optical networks - perhaps in gathering and converting light back into electric signals. If I recall correctly, the ends of fibers are shaped into lenses to focus the light onto the photo-diode. Increasing the efficiency of that lens could extend the usable length of a fiber.

You can't peta starfish

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose you could but would the starfish enjoy it? Certainly, humans like petting animals. A general rule is, if they stand still, don't smell too bad, someone will try to pet it.

It is heartening that and organization like Petting Everything That is Alive (PETA) is around.
Kind of like humanities ambassadors to all other lifeforms. So, next time you hear someone say. "Come here little buddy!", know that a PETA ambasador is nearby, making the world a nicer place.

Better article

[Strange Ranger]

At Bell Labs here [bell-labs.com].

"The calcite microlenses expertly compensate for birefringence and spherical aberration - physical effects common in lenses that distort light - and scientists hope to mimic nature's success and design microlenses based on the brittlestar model. Such biomimetic lenses may prove useful as components of optical networks, and in chip design, where they could potentially improve optical lithography techniques."

New trend?

[gad_zuki!]

With this recent salon piece [salon.com] on how starfish parts could be used in computing and the neural net made out of neurons I think this could be a very interesting trend.

The site is already slashdotted, man its 4am here, but if nature has already done a good job in design why not borrow it for other purposes. Its like Junkyard Wars but on a very small and living scale.

A nice bonus with using cellurar material is there probably wont be ethical complaints i.e. who identifies with neurons?