{"id":181,"date":"2009-12-09T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/12\/shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:15:44","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:15:44","slug":"shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/12\/shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution.html","title":{"rendered":"Shiny Scales, Silvery Skins, and Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

 \"spider-fish-scales.jpg\"<\/span> <\/p>\n

Source: <\/b>Physorg.com<\/p>\n
Iridescence — a key component of certain makeup, paints, coatings of mirrors and lenses — is also an important feature in the natural world. Both fish and spiders make use of periodic photonic systems, which scatter or reflect the light that passes against their scales or skin to produce an iridescent camouflage. Previously, scientists knew that animals like the Koi fish and the silvery spider used guanine crystals of a specific size and orientation to achieve this reflectivity. However, a recent study<\/a> by researcher Avital Levy-Lior and her colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science and York University have discovered how these structures came together through evolution.<\/p>\n

Thanks to advanced techniques, the researchers were able to study the skin and scales intact without damaging their structure. Their findings show that while both fish and spiders used different crystal arrangements, they were both able to evolve effective structures for achieving reflectivity using the same base material (guanine crystals).<\/p>\n

The fact that both fish and spiders were able to evolve a unique but equally effective structure for photonic camouflage is particularly intriguing. Says Prof. Peter Fratzl of the Department of Biomaterials at the Max
\nPlanck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, “It is very surprising that fish and spiders, pertaining to completely
\ndifferent taxonomic groups, independently acquired through evolution
\nthe ability to generate mirror-like reflections on their skin by
\ndepositing guanine crystals. This suggests that the solution must be
\nquite efficient and it is, therefore, extremely promising for the
\nmaterial scientists to try and understand the structural principles of
\nthese photonic crystals working as (colored) mirrors.”<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Source: Physorg.com Iridescence — a key component of certain makeup, paints, coatings of mirrors and lenses — is also an important feature in the natural world. Both fish and spiders make use of periodic photonic systems, which scatter or reflect the light that passes against their scales or skin to produce an iridescent camouflage.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"\nShiny Scales, Silvery Skins, and Evolution - Science and the Sacred<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/12\/shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shiny Scales, Silvery Skins, and Evolution - Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Source: Physorg.com Iridescence — a key component of certain makeup, paints, coatings of mirrors and lenses — is also an important feature in the natural world. Both fish and spiders make use of periodic photonic systems, which scatter or reflect the light that passes against their scales or skin to produce an iridescent camouflage.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/12\/shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-09T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T13:15:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/spider-fish-scales.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The BioLogos Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shiny Scales, Silvery Skins, and Evolution - Science and the Sacred","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/12\/shiny-scales-silvery-skins-and-evolution.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shiny Scales, Silvery Skins, and Evolution - Science and the Sacred","og_description":"  Source: Physorg.com Iridescence — a key component of certain makeup, paints, coatings of mirrors and lenses — is also an important feature in the natural world. 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