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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."
Damn, I have no life, can I get a ticket?
To paraphrase The Graduate, "In one word - biotech. The future, my boy, is biotech." Almost everything that is promised by nanotech devices will be inspired by, copied from or created out of biotech research. "Classic nano-tech" (the use of bulky, expensive machines to affect the nano-world) doesn't scale. Great for looking at nano stuff, but not for making it.
There are already rumblings that some of the computer components in the fairly near future will be created by organic chemical processes depositing layers at accuracies that classic nano-tech might have achieved, but at a *scale* that makes it useful. A recent "IEEE Computer Magazine" had an article on using viruses to create transistor junctions. Even if this *particular* road dead ends, it seems impossible that organic nanotech won't be the preferred approach to making all things tiny and intricate, especially once we fall below the scale that chip masks are useful.
Sig under construction since 1998.
This Australian beetle really is a gem: the greenish scales on its back are identical to opal. Andrew Parker, a former researcher at the Australian Museum, was amazed when he examined the internal structure of the scales under a powerful microscope and realised it was the same as that of the precious stone. "This is the first time opal has been found in animals," said Dr Parker, who is now at Oxford University in Britain. The find could lead to a new method for synthesising opals, not only for use in jewellery, but as components, known as photonic crystals, for the computers of the future, which will rely on the movement of light. The beetle, Pachyrhynchus argus, is commonly found in the rainforests of north-eastern Queensland. Its particular pattern of patches of metallic gleam had probably evolved to make it recognisable to other members of its species in the dim light under the forest canopy, Dr Parker said. "The optical effect created by this weevil makes it appear strongly coloured, whatever angle you look at it." The discovery is published today in the journal Nature. The colour of most opals, and the beetle's scales, is the result of light being reflected from layers of transparent spheres, packed in a precise hexagonal pattern. The beetle reflects only one colour because all of its nano-spheres are exactly the same size - about 250 nanometres across (a nanometre is a billionth of a metre) - whereas multi-coloured opals have a range of different sized nano-spheres. Dr Parker said that although liquid opals were easy to make, synthesising solid ones was notoriously difficult. His team has begun to try to fathom how the beetle creates an opal-like structure using the chemical "factories" inside its cells. "If we can emulate the weevil's means of opal production this would represent a technological breakthrough, particularly since opal, as a photonic crystal, has numerous industrial applications," he said. Scientists have already had some success copying nature, recently creating artificial mother of pearl by mimicking the way abalones build up nanolayers of different materials to make their shells. But the beetle's method for making perfect opals posed a bigger challenge than this, because it probably used clever pieces of tiny machinery, such as molecular motors, and templates to extrude the nano-spheres, Dr Parker said.
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
...in Montana we have diamond-backed rattlesnakes.
"Opal on the back shell (weevil power!)"
Oh yeah, I smell a tv show here...
The Beetle That Thought It Was A Precious Stone
I think Ringo must have smoked some really bad stuff that day
For using "nano" three different ways in six different places, the author should opalogize.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
...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.
It kills me to see how people can be so surprised that nature is capable of producing such incredible things. When there is a new discovery of a naturally occuring disease cure in the Brazillian rain forest people go nuts. How about the fact spider's silk is stronger than kevlar? We've got plants that produce wonder cures. Animals that perform wondrous feats like this beetle that can make gems. And yet we humans still spend billions trying to "discover" new drugs or ways to manufacture crystals. We seriously need to look more at what nature has to offer and mimic that. It's more natural, it's been proven effective over thousands of years, and it will probably cost less.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
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 ?
... a tree that produces amber! (it just takes a little time)
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I must have kilos of opals inside me!
Needle Nardle Noo
Opals are actually just a mixture of tiny silica spheres and 3-10% water... "nanospeheres" are a defining characteristic of an opal; it's not a single crystal like many other types of gems. interesting reference
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
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.
"Implications for research into nanotechnology, biotechnology, and photonic computing are implied in the article."
A blog like any other.
No, the reason that people like to be able to manufacture en masse is because it is cheaper.
You can patent a process for producing things, but you can't patent a plant--though, unfortunately, in some locales you can patent the plant's genome.
A wonderdrug like penicillin, that comes from naturally occurring processes, is not patentable, so you can't make money on it. An antibiotic produced via chemical, bioengineered, or nanoprocesses is patentable.
So, the only financial incentive for investigating new naturally occuring drugs in nature is simply to identify them, figure out their molecular structure and determine how to produce them because that you can patent and that you can make money on.
I wonder how long it takes before this species becomes extinct now it proves to have some value...
Any mouse has 'em... they tend to grow on the front :-)
How else do you think they feed the baby mice?
Perhaps you'd be better to look at rats to satisfy some of your cravings?
Where's the dividend in opal? What we need is a crack beetle. Get to it, Aussies!
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Make Your Own Gold Mine
my grammar sucks ;-)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Uh, the parent should be +1 Funny not +1 Insightful.
:)
Just like oil, gold, diamands and whatever else are everywhere, so is Opal. It's just easier to get at in some places than others (see also: War on Iraq II
And where a certain feature (colour, texture, critter, etc) is more naturally abundant in whatever form, the local wildlife will evolve to emulate it to avoid getting eaten.
So you have reptiles that look like tree bark, butterflies that look like snake eyes, and bugs that look like expensive rocks.
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
I seem to recall animals being used to grow skin and arterial tissue for later use in humans.
Plus, aren't there plants that ingest and retain toxic materials?
This discovery seems like another situation where we can leverage what animals do naturally for our own purposes.
It makes me wonder what else is possible that we haven't figured out yet.
The Law of Falling Bodies
you mean there's something in nature that man hasn't exploited for profit yet?
Hmm, has anyone read the book Chrichton's Prey ? *shiver*
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