Bluespotted ribbontail rays have spots of a an unusually clear and vivid blue. The colour is the result of refracted light rather than a blue pigment. This is called structural colour as it results from different wavelengths of light being scattered by microscopic structures in the ‘blue’ tissue. Structural colour can be very vivid, but its brightness usually changes as you view it from different angles. The blue in bird feathers is a well known example of this phenomenon. But unlike blue bird feathers the blue spots on the stingray stays the same as the viewing angle changes.
A group of scientists has studied the blue spots on ribbontail rays and found a method of producing blue colour not seen before by biologists. They found “unique skin cells, with a stable 3D arrangement of nanoscale spheres containing reflecting nanocrystals (like pearls suspended in a bubble tea).” According to Amar Surapaneni, one of the research team, “Because the size of the nanostructures and their spacing are a useful multiple of the wavelength of blue light, they tend to reflect blue wavelengths specifically.”
Underneath the colour producing cells there are melanin producing cells that absorb any other wavelengths of light. Mason Dean, Associate Professor of Comparative Anatomy at City University of Hong Kong explained: “In the end, the two cell types are a great collaboration: the structural colour cells hone in on the blue colour, while the melanin pigment cells suppress other wavelengths, resulting in extremely bright blue skin.”
As the coloured stingray skin is soft and flexible the research team hope their findings will be used to develop chemical-free colours in textiles and flexible screens.
References: Eurekalert 4 July 2024; Science Alert 16 July 2024; Advanced Optical Materials 1 March 2024 doi:10.1002/adom.202301909
Editorial Comment: Nanotechnology may be a recently invented cutting-edge technology in human industry, but studies such as these remind us that God invented it first, and it is the product of creative design and clever manipulation of materials.
Also, note that it takes two different cells working together to make the intense clear colour. This is another reminder that nothing in biology works in isolation. Therefore, evolutionists have to explain what made the melanin and nanostructure cells work together as well as explain how the nanostructure cells evolved the ability to build the nanocrystals in just the right configuration to refracting light. Having two components working together requires a creative designer who knows the whole organism.
Genesis tells us that God created whole, fully functioning sea creatures according to the separate kinds, and they have multiplied after their kinds so that we can study and learn from them today.
Creation Research News 7 August 2024
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