Scientists learn how tiny critters make ocean 'snot palaces' - The Associated Press

These so-called “snot palaces” could possibly help human construction if scientists manage to crack the mucus architectural code, said Kakani Katija, a bioengineer at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Her team took a step toward solving the mystery of the snot houses and maybe someday even replicating them, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.

Together with their houses “they are like an alien life form, made almost entirely out of water, yet crafted with complexity and purpose,” said Dalhousie University marine biologist Boris Worm, who wasn’t part of the study.

Because the snot houses are so delicate, researchers haven’t often been able to take them to the lab to study them.

“It could be the most kind of complex structure that an animal makes,” Katija said.

“They create these small versions of houses by secreting mucus from cells on their heads and then expand those much like a balloon into the structures that we see,” Katija said.

Katija’s team used 3D laser scan technology to virtually fly through the inner chambers of the snot palaces, then recreated them with software to model the inner-workings of the structure.

Providence College biologist Jack Costello, who wasn’t part of the study, said Katija’s team did “really cool work ...