Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
A Breathtaking New Type of Opal Has Been Found... in Common Seaweed
A Breathtaking New Type of Opal Has Been Found... in Common Seaweed
The heart of the sea.
MICHELLE STARR 20 APR 2018
The gemstone opal is beloved for its scintillating array of colours.
Now the nanostructures that make those dazzling colours possible have been found elsewhere - in a common type of seaweed found throughout European coastal regions.
Brown algae (Cystoseira tamariscifolia) is also called "rainbow wrack." When out of the water and dry, it's a dark, nondescript dark olive colour.
But when thriving under the water, it shimmers with blue and green iridescence.
This iridescence, researchers from Bristol's School of Physics and Department of Electrical Engineering have shown, are the result of a structure of nanoscale spheres - organised to control how the light reflects from the chloroplast-containing seaweed cells.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/living-opal-found-in-brown-algae-seaweed-cystoseira-tamariscifolia
