About PlanktonTech
The scientific focus of PlanktonTech is to understand how the use of materials and structures by marine planktonic organisms has evolved in earth´s history. The factors leading to the development of mechanically increasingly efficient and sophisticated plankton shells, starting from simple geometries, will be studied and modelled using non-linear optimization. In addition, the transition from one given lightweight shell to an alternative shell architecture, triggered by an alteration of (mechanical) environmental factors, will be simulated. The Hustedt collection of Diatoms at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science with its 80 000 samples, including many fossils, will serve as a reference for the structures emerging from these simulations, but will also provide the basis for 3D models of structures, which will be altered in the simulated process of evolution. The Hustedt collection is not only one of the largest diatom collections in the world; in addition, it is also exceptionally well-sorted and offers a variety of microscopic methods (TEM, CLSM, SEM, LM, AFM) including the respective expertises. The questions of evolution, biodiversity and speciation of plankton shells are indirectly addressed by the virtual institute, and thus the continuing discussion concerning Hutchinson's „Paradox of the Plankton“ (Hutchinson 1961, Huisman 2005), niche theory and biodiversity will profit from this work. The strive for efficiency and the adaptation of structures to altered environmental factors has recently become a major issue in politics and many industries, because resources such as fuels and buildings materials (e.g. metals, plastics and composites) are expensive and scarce. The actual engineering tools to optimize lightweight constructions use a purely linear approach (e.g. CAO/SKO; Topology/Shape optimization). However, these approaches lead to solutions which mark local optima and are often difficult to integrate in the usual production processes. In contrast, using pre-optimized structures such as the diatoms from the Hustedt-collection in combination with evolutionary strategic optimization and CAO/SKO has the potential to produce radically new and more efficient structures.
