The Shrimp's Eye

By Rhiannonw

Thu, 04 Mar 2021
  • 1287 reads
6 comments
 

Biomimetics 4)

Deep in the bottom of the ocean
(light level low)
the little shrimp can see
very well.
Phototonic crystals
nanospheres in array
unusual crystal plates
optimally sized for reflecting
the blue light where they live
– repeatedly reflecting until alights on receptors.
Researchers had struggled with orientation
in making such themselves;
and hadn’t thought of the ‘genius’ of the shrimp solution
using these spherical building blocks.

Now maybe ultra-thin reflectors can be
designed,
just as this amazingly intricate shrimp’s eye was
creatively designed!

Anyone imagining it evolving
by chance, step by small viable step
over aeons, must surely be
unreasonably blind!

 

Certificate U
Poem
Grand Designs
Nature

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

That new Attenborough series about how animals see colour is amazing.  I disagree with you on the design/evolution debate, Rhiannon, but completely agree that it's a wonderful thing to get a glimpse of how other creatures view the world.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Jane, for reading. Yes, the increasing detail and insight into the lives and structure of animals and plants and how they survive is wonderful, especially with the power of photography and ease of travel nowadays (when not in a pandemic).

As a biochemist I am aware that the detail emerging, especially on the chemical and organisational level is making traditional evolutionary suggested mechanisms increasingly impossible, as is soft tissue being found in supposedly extremely old fossils – food for revisitng assumptions! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

Rhiannon I remember you mentioning before that you are qualified in biochemistry. That should give you some authority in these evolution debates.I jjust don't feel it's all so terribly important really.

See you! Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks Tom, for saying how you feel. I can quite understand, especially if it isn't your sicentific field, wondering if it is just causing unnecessary  contention. But for a lot of people nowadays, they reject the scripture history because they feel it must be wrong about creation. They don't realise that scientifically, evolution is actually floundering. Actually also, to know that God has that power, that he chose to make the world, and didn't need to spend millions of years on 'failures' and death, to create, does fit in with all else we know of him!!

regards, Rhiannon

 

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Rhiannon

Beautiful images of the little shrimp, and how wonderful his creation was that it could make him see so well. Thank you for writing about it. I shall feel guilty now when I eat a shrimp.

 

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Jean, but oh, I think we're allowed to eat the shrimps like all God's food gifts (not that I do eat shrimps, actually!), but he'd have us admire and praise his skill in creating such abilities and such beauty! and helps us to see how great is his skill and power that we can trust. Rhiannon