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https://www.sciencealert.com/the-prettiest-sea-slugs-use-crystals-in-their-skin-as-pixels-of-color>
“Nudibranchs are the jewels of the underwater world.
That's not just a nice metaphor: Scientists have now discovered that the
vibrant colors of sartorial sea slugs really are made up of thousands of tiny
crystals embedded in their skin.
Biologists had long assumed that the eye-catching colorways sported by
nudibranchs arise from pigment, the same way a toucan's beak packs in its many
hues, for instance.
But with a background in materials science rather than biology, researcher
Samuel Humphrey of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces
suspected that there was a lot more to these multi-colored molluscs than meets
the eye.
By taking a closer look at six different species of nudibranchs, Humphrey and
his collaborators have confirmed that pigments are not the only 'paints' in a
nudibranchs' pallet.
"We were surprised to find that nudibranchs use structural colors," Humphrey
says.
"Using this elegant color generation mechanism, these beautiful animals are
able to generate an astounding array of colors from a single material."”
Via Susan ****
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
