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The Beetle That Thought It Was A Precious Stone
circletimessquare writes "Queensland, Australia is well-known as one of the most important sources for opal in the world. Apparently Queensland has another untapped source of opal recently discovered in its backyard, except this source is not the providence of geology, but biology. A native weevil of Queensland grows opal on it's back shell! Implications for research into nanotechnology, biotechnology, and photonic computing are implied in the article. The journal Nature is publishing the more rigorous scientific write-up of the findings."
...this source is not the providence of geology, but biology.
You must mean "...this source is not in the province of geology, but rather biology." If you can't choose the right words or put a sentence together you shouldn't expect anyone to give a lot of weight to whatever it is you're trying to say. And don't try to sound so fancy if you're going to trip over yourself: "the opals are formed through a biological rather than a geological process."
Also I'm sure the weevil "grows opal on its back," not on it's back, which would mean "on it is back."
providence: (1) Care or preparation in advance; foresight. (2) Prudent management; economy. (3) The capital of the state of Rhode Island.
Provence: A historical region and former province of southeast France bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.
province: (1) A territory governed as an administrative or political unit of a country or empire. (2) A division of territory under the jurisdiction of an archbishop. (3) A comprehensive area of knowledge, activity, or interest: a topic falling within the province of ancient history. (4) The range of one's proper duties and functions; scope or jurisdiction. (5) Ecology. An area of land, less extensive than a region, having a characteristic plant and animal population.
provenance: (1) Place of origin; derivation. (2) Proof of authenticity or of past ownership. Used of art works and antiques.
This beetle imitates opals by stacking layers of hexagonally aligned nanospheres (250 nm in diameter) to reflect one wavelength (color). If I'm not mistaken that's a lot like those butterflies that have scales sized in the same range of hundreds of nanometers to appear blue without synthetizing any colored substance.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
The bugs makes "nanoparticles" 250nm in size, i.e. 0.25 micron in size. In semiconductor 0.25micron is so old tech you can sell anything to China without anyone raising an eyebrow. The current highend semiconductor manufacturing is using 0.09 micron design rules, implying gate lengths of about 45nm and they are not going around shouting "Hey we are doing nanotech!"
Biotech is great, but perhaps overhyped if people start associating it with anything. For the near future it will concentrate on and making heaps of money doing medical based and lifestyle enhancing (thing Viagra) products.
Meanwhile semiconductor people will continue pushing the barrier and makes heaps of money doing so, without needing to spin itself with terms like nano- things. But to be fair they don't need to do too much convincing sceptical venture capitalists anymore.
Perhaps organic chemists with their highly specific molecules may get to do some real results. But making proteins and complex molecules using cells is not nanotechnology. Looking at bugs who have 0.25micron particles on its back doesn't make the cut either.
Read the articles again. The discoverer did not used "nanotechnology" nor hype it as such. But after getting a paper publish on Nature, perhaps he doesn't need the hype.
There is an entire field of research on this approach to color and photonic manipulation in biology (I first heard of this around 1980). Structural colors refer to coloration created not by dyes or pigments, but by microstructural features of the physical surface. The best example of this is the morpho butterfly . Many iridescent creatures get their colors from structural colors. Some of the darkest blacks are also structural.
The transparency of jelly-fish is also structural -- the surface of the jellyfish has nanoscopic fingers (much smaller than a wavelength of light) that create a smooth transition between the high-index-refraction of the jellyfish and the low index of refraction of the water. The result is the ultimate in anti-reflection coatings and a much more transparent jelly fish.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
From the reference cited in the parent:
Opal was formed millions of years ago, when silica and water, mixed together, flowed into cracks and spaces in the ground, then gradually hardened, solidified and became opal.
Based on this article -- and on the fact that "96% of the worlds supply" (ref) comes from the isolated continent that just happens to be home to an opal-bearing bug -- I wonder if the theory of opal formation needs to be changed?
After all, "silica and water" are a couple of the most abundant compounds on the planet. Wouldn't you expect somewhere besides Australia to have the right conditions for forming those silica nano-beads?
My theory:
Opal was formed millions of years ago, when dead Pachyrhynchus argus beetles and water, mixed together, flowed into cracks and spaces in the ground, then gradually hardened, solidified and became opal.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
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