Close Menu
  • News
  • Medical
  • Technology
  • Nanomaterials
  • Research
  • Blog
    • Nasiol.com
  • Contact
    • Tech7685@gmail.com
What's Hot

Probing the molecular mechanisms of metastasis

May 10, 2025

AI-powered electronic nose detects diverse scents for health care and environmental applications

May 10, 2025

Microbubble dynamics in boiling water enable precision fluid manipulation

May 9, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily
  • News
  • Medical
  • Technology
  • Nanomaterials
  • Research
  • Blog
    • Nasiol.com
  • Contact
    • Tech7685@gmail.com
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily
Home»Nanomaterials»Photonic nanospheres help baby shellfish hide from predators
Nanomaterials

Photonic nanospheres help baby shellfish hide from predators

August 9, 2023No Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
Photonic nanospheres help baby shellfish hide from predators
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Telegram Email

Researchers have discovered a nanomaterial-based reflector that overlies the eye pigments in certain baby crustaceans. The pigments, which are made from tiny crystalline spheres of isoxanthopterin, allow the animals to become completely transparent and so hide from predators. The structures could inspire the development of biocompatible artificial photonic materials.

Many creatures that live in the ocean appear transparent to avoid ending up as prey, but their eyes can give them away because they contain opaque pigments. To better camouflage their eyes, many crustaceans have developed reflectors that cover their dark eye pigments, producing an “eyeshine” that reflects light at wavelengths matching those of the water they live in, that is, the wavelengths of visible light (400 to 750 nm).

In their new work, detailed in Science, researchers led by Johannes Haataja of the University of Cambridge in the UK and Benjamin Palmer from Ben Gurion University in Israel, used optical and cryogenic scanning electron microscopy to study several species of shrimp and prawns, including the freshwater species Machrobrachium rosenbergi.

They found that the eyeshine is produced by highly reflective cells made from a photonic glass containing crystalline isoxanthopterin nanospheres on the interior of the crustaceans’ eyes. The eyeshine colour ranges from deep blue to green/yellow depending on the size of the nanospheres and how they are ordered. This modulation helps the creatures “blend in” with different background colours, which vary depending on the time of day and the depth that they find themselves in, explains Palmer.

See also  Enabling the future: printable sensors for a sustainable, intelligent world

A nice surprise

As sometimes happens in science, the researchers made their discovery quite by chance – as they were initially studying how isoxanthopterin crystals form in certain species of shrimp as they develop. Indeed, in previous work, they had found that that adult decapod crustaceans used a back-scattering reflector (tapetum) lying behind the retina made from these crystals to increase the amount of light they capture.

“We had a nice surprise, however, in that we found that larval shrimp also use crystalline reflectors – albeit for a very different optical purpose to the adults,” explains Palmer. “Our work is based on a previous study by another group who found this effect in larval stomatopod crustaceans. We also found that the eyeshine phenomenon is present in other larval decapod crustaceans with differently coloured eyes.”

Invisible against the background

To discover the material responsible for this reflectance, the team used cryogenic-scanning electron microscopy – a technique that allows biological tissue to be imaged in a close-to-life state without introducing artefacts resulting from the dehydration of wet biological tissue. The images obtained showed that the reflector was made of spheres. Upon closer examination, using transmission electron tomography and electron diffraction, the researchers found that the spheres were made from isoxanthopterin crystals, just like in adult crustacean eyes.

“However, in the larval case, the anatomical position and optical function of the spheres is very different,” Palmer tells Physics World. “The reflector sits atop the absorbing pigments in the eye and reflects light away from the conspicuous eye pigments to render the animals invisible against the background.”

See also  New Laser Technique Enables Precise Fabrication of Nanoscale Photonic Crystals
The correlation between eyeshine color and nanoparticle size
Tunable reflector: the eyeshine colour correlates with the nanoparticle size. Below each colour is a representative image of the nanosphere. (Courtesy: Keshet Shavit)

The key to the camouflage, he says, is the animal’s ability to control the size of the spheres, which, as mentioned, determines the colour of the reflector. A critical part of the study, he adds, was the computational work performed by Haataja and Lukas Schertel. “Their three-dimensional models allowed us to test the effect of numerous structural parameters on the optical properties of the reflector, including particle size, particle filling fraction, cell size, particle birefringence and particle hollowness,” explains Palmer.

Organic biomineralization

The researchers say that they would now like to better understand how different organisms use crystalline materials to manipulate light for different functions. This field, known as organic biomineralization, is garnering ever more attention in the community, Palmer explains. A key question here is to understand how organisms control the crystallization of these materials, with the aim of developing new ways to synthesize artificial equivalents for use in real-world applications.

“Whilst we are more concerned with the fundamental science, it is very possible that there could be bio-inspired materials generated from this study,” he says. “Isoxanthopterin nanospheres have an incredibly high refractive index (around 2.0 in certain crystallographic directions), which makes them extremely efficient at reflecting light. And the fact that the colour for the reflected light can be tuned by controlling the sphere size makes them, in principle, very versatile optical materials.”

There is currently a lot of interest, Palmer adds, in replacing conventional inorganic scattering materials (used in food additives, paints and cosmetics, for example) with organic analogues. “The material described in this work would be an excellent candidate but there are many fundamental things we need to learn first.”

See also  Array of copper nanowires excels at passive de-icing

Source link

baby hide nanospheres Photonic predators shellfish
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Nanosensor predicts risk of complications in early pregnancy

March 7, 2025

Masquerading moth deploys specialized nanostructures to evade predators

February 22, 2025

Nanoparticles demonstrate new and unexpected mechanism of coronavirus disinfection

February 11, 2025

Two-faced graphene nanoribbons could make the first purely carbon-based ferromagnets

February 6, 2025

Nanocrystals measure tiny forces on tiny length scales

January 22, 2025

Nanocrystal shape affects molecular binding

November 1, 2024

Comments are closed.

Top Articles
Research

Unveiling the Impact of Nanotech Innovation and Funding

News

In quest to prevent debilitating traumatic brain injuries, new foam material rises to the top

News

Studying thin films under extreme temperatures with reflectometry

Editors Picks

Probing the molecular mechanisms of metastasis

May 10, 2025

AI-powered electronic nose detects diverse scents for health care and environmental applications

May 10, 2025

Microbubble dynamics in boiling water enable precision fluid manipulation

May 9, 2025

Unique molecule may lead to smaller, more efficient computers

May 9, 2025
About Us
About Us

Your go-to source for the latest nanotechnology breakthroughs. Explore innovations, applications, and implications shaping the future at the molecular level. Stay informed, embrace the nano-revolution.

We're accepting new partnerships right now.

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
Our Picks

Cleverly designed carbon nanohoop enables controlled release of iron

April 2, 2025

New superionic conducting electrolyte could enhance stability of all-solid-state lithium metal batteries

January 2, 2025

Breakthrough in Mass Production of MXene

September 18, 2023

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative Nano Tech news from Elnano.com

© 2025 Elnano.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Cleantalk Pixel