What Bird Feathers and Beer Foam Have In Common

Rational Egoist writes "Researchers at Yale University have found that some of the brightest colors in bird feathers are created through structures similar in origin and composition to that of beer foam. Unlike with most colors in nature — which are produced by pigments — the bright blue colors of Bluebirds and Blue Jays are actually produced by sponge-like nanostructures. These structures are formed in quite the same way as beer foam. From the article: '[Researchers] compared the nanostructures to examples of materials undergoing phase separation, in which mixtures of different substances become unstable and separate from one another, such as the carbon-dioxide bubbles that form when the top is popped off a bubbly drink. They found that the color-producing structures in feathers appear to self-assemble in much the same manner. Bubbles of water form in a protein-rich soup inside the living cell and are replaced with air as the feather grows.'"

Comments

Re:So when will...

[tjonnyc999]

I'm sure there's a team of scientists over at MIT or Stanford, working hard on the next-generation bird-based beer-delivery system. Have some faith in science, man!

Without RTFS

[Renderer of Evil]

What Bird Feathers and Beer Foam Have In Common

Failed amazon.com experiments with new packing materials

What else did they compare it to?

[f5hacka]

How the crap did they come up with comparing it to beer foam? What else was on the list of things to compare it to? Yale Guy: "THC...nope. Crystal Meth...nope. Hookers...nope. Beer Foam... WE GOT A MATCH BOYS"

UV illumination

[MollyB]

This article got me thinking about birds' ability to see in the UV waveband, and I scrounged up this somewhat dated link which notes "the vast majority of male and female birds that look alike to humans--blue jays, for example-- may actually look entirely different to the birds themselves because of their ability to see UV light, which humans are blind to." [Emphasis mine]
I wonder how the nanostructures self-assemble with such apparent precision?

But birds are descended from dinosaurs

[billstewart]

so obviously dinosaurs are descended from beer yeasts.

It's much more likely that you'll find a *(%^*& veliciraptor in your fermenter (unless of course the bluejay just flew in their by accident, or because it was trying to retrieve a dropped coconut or something.

This was already known

[1336]

"Unlike with most colors in nature - which are produced by pigments - the bright blue colors of Bluebirds and Blue Jays are actually produced by sponge-like nanostructures. These structures are formed in quite the same way as beer foam."

This has been known for some time; sufficient quantities of beer can lead to pink elephants. There's some documentary footage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nwNPaYoTY8