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Beetle Naturally Builds Photonic Crystals
esocid writes "Impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers, we've been unable to build an ideal 'photonic crystal' to manipulate visible light, until now. University of Utah chemists have discovered that nature already has designed photonic crystals with the ideal, diamond-like structure: They are found in the shimmering, iridescent green scales of a beetle from Brazil. The beetle is an inch-long weevil named Lamprocyphus augustus. Bartl and Galusha now are trying to design a synthetic version of the beetle's photonic crystals, using scale material as a mold to make the crystals from a transparent semiconductor. The scales can't be used in technological devices because they are made of fingernail-like chitin, which is not stable enough for long-term use, is not semiconducting and doesn't bend light adequately. Ideal photonic crystals could be used to amplify light and thus make solar cells more efficient, to capture light that would catalyze chemical reactions, and to generate tiny laser beams that would serve as light sources on optical chips."
Bartl and Galusha now are trying to design a synthetic version of the beetle's photonic crystals, using scale material as a mold to make the crystals from a transparent semiconductor.
Man, I remember when I studied this in school. The crystals weren't lining up right no matter what I tried. Eventually I solved it by continuously rotating them during the growing stage, while simultaneously directing acoustic vibrations into their center. I called this the "Twist and Shout" method.
-- Jon Titor
Decades of computer debugging efforts wiped out by naturalist...
Well it's probably for the best that we can't simply use the scales else the poor little devils would likely be on the fast track of the endangered species list.
Two Parts Swash, One Part Buckle
Some day we'll find ready-made mattresses somewhere...
I don't feel like it...
I know it is sickeningly overused, but where will they get the tiny sharks for these tiny lasers?
We all know the answer...
Seamonkeys!!!!
The summary starts out by saying the beetle has ideal crystals, only to finish by saying they can't be used because they are not ideal.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
I vollue and globber floopily to you.
How many petaflops could you process with a Beetle Cluster?
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
For Aiur!
Just because you can't see the advantage in some feature doesn't mean that there isn't one. In addition, it was my understanding that it's possible for new features to appear and get "carried along" so long as they're not too detrimental to the organism's survival and procreation. They may or may not turn out to be useful later on.
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
When the big dino-killer hit the planet, it most probably threw tons of biological samples off of the planet. Some of these would have struck the moon. Nature wins again!
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
In furtherance to this point, there's also the fact that the ability to grow photonic crystals on one's back benefits this species of weevil through its ability to enter into a mutualistic relationship with homo sapiens. Thus, through the interest garnered by the crystals, human beings will attempt to keep the species alive at least as long as it takes to see if they're useful.
Why would you get flamed for things that are perfectly explainable (oh, and observable ;)). Any development that doesn't seem to have an obvious evolutionary advantage does not contradict evolution; they could be vestigial like our appendix or even be atavisms whose genes are coupled with a certain genetic mutation that makes it become dominant again.
Btw, you weren't defending ID here, as you only stated why you think evolution produced some strange effect you couldn't explain. "Defending" it would have meant explaining how putting these seemingly useless traits in there by 'the creator' could in any sense be construed as "intelligent design".
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
Once those beetles can fart at escape velocity it's all over.
So, it makes one wonder what other great secrets lie in wait in the Amazon - if we could get the bastards to stop destroying it.
No. See, your problem stems from your lack of understanding of what evolution is and what its implications are. You are viewing evolution as a type of applied engineering where stepwise improvements lead to new features and, eventually, the next species. This is not the case at all. Evolution is far more basic than that. It is simply population genetics over time. That's it; nothing more, nothing less. And yet, when we look at it this way instead of the popular misconception of evolution, we notice some very profound things:
Evolution is real. In fact, given the phenomenological way in which evolution is described, it can't be disputed. Those who attempt to de-legitimize or disprove evolution do so out of their own ignorance. Don't expect any sympathy.
-Grym
Sorry ... are you trying to say that we might be the leaser of two weevils?
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk