Title: The Marine Sponge Cliona celata as a living, granular metamaterial

Author (Table Talk): Emile Kraus,

Abstract:

Recently, it has been shown that collagenous marine sponge tissue is a complex rheological material displaying strain-dependent shear and compression softening and stiffening, auxeticity, and signatures of mechanical memory. Here, I focus on a species which is typically heavily embedded with endogenous silica spicules and exogenous sand grains. This particular sponge showed excellent recalling of a previous largest strain and an apparent Poisson's ratio of -0.66. Such a 'granulofibrous' material is a novel system in which to explore the physical capabilities of native biological soft matter.