Someday, optical communications and high-speed computing might owe their success to a little ocean creature: the sea urchin. Materials scientists have fabricated a photonic crystal using a piece of ...

Nov. 30 (UPI) --Inspired by the unique structure of sea urchin spines, scientists at the University of Konstanz have developed a new way to make cement more resistant to fracturing. The shells of sea ...

Materials researchers love sea creatures. Mother-of-pearl provokes ideas for smooth surfaces, clams inspire gluey substances, shark's skin is used to develop materials that reduce drag in water, and ...

Arbacia punctulata, the purple-spined sea urchin, is native to the western Atlantic Ocean along the eastern coast of the US and the Gulf of Mexico, where it usually lives on rock or shell substrates.