What Bird Feathers and Beer Foam Have In Common 36
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.'"
So when will... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So when will... (Score:4, Funny)
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It's got what cells crave. (Score:3, Funny)
Electrolytes!
Without RTFS (Score:5, Funny)
Failed amazon.com experiments with new packing materials
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I tell you . . . (Score:2)
. . . if the next time I spend half a Saturday making really good beer straight from grain, I look into my secondary fermenter a week later and find a *(%^*& bluejay staring out of the secondary fermenter at me a week later, it's not going to be amazon that I go after, but a couple of eastern sissies with their sweater cuffs tucked together around their waist . . .
hawkj
But birds are descended from dinosaurs (Score:4, Funny)
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.
How much are they after? (Score:1)
What else did they compare it to? (Score:5, Funny)
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Dabbling makes you sticky.
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> 2009 is the year!
yes, of feathered beer foam.
I think.
maybe.
I need a glass of wine.
coconuts (Score:2)
grab then by the husk....
or was that too obtuse?
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you just earned your nerd credentials.
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It's just a matter of weight ratios really.
UV illumination (Score:4, Insightful)
This article got me thinking about birds' ability to see in the UV waveband, and I scrounged up this somewhat dated link [ku.edu] 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?
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.
Humans with OEM corneas, at least. Artificial corneas don't absorb UV light.
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Humans with OEM corneas, at least. Artificial corneas don't absorb UV light.
Even with an artificial cornea, our eyes aren't sensitive to UV in the sense that some insects and birds are. We don't have UV-specific receptors, so we would see it as more white light, or more of whichever colour receptors were most sensitive to it.
I'd be curious to know if people with artificial corneas can see the UV patterns on flowers, even if they can't really tell that it's a different colour, just that there is a bright/dar
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Actually, Zerth was correct. The human cornea blocks most UV light. People who have had theirs replaced with UV-transparent synthetic material report being able to see UV light (as white, IIRC, similarly to how we see near-infrared).
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Actually, I've built some NIR-bandpass goggles(primary red+congo blue lighting gels=poor man's IR). It is indeed almost impossible to see unless in direct sun or a really bright NIR/visible red source. Most LEDs don't cut it, but heating elements emitting just enough light to still be dark by visible light barely show up if looked at directly.
I just recently replied to someone with only one artificial cornea [slashdot.org], he says each eye sees UV differently.
As far as I know, UV light appears as a deep violet/indigo-whi
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As I posted on the firehose, I noticed that when my mostly green conure got wet, she turned grey. All but the yellow and red bits, leading me to deduce that the green was not actually pigment but an iridescent effect of the feather's structure.
If birds are made of beer (Score:2)
Then a woodpecker must be a bird on tap!
Sweet jesus, why can't I stop.
badpour?! (Score:3, Insightful)
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Indeed. A good Belgian Special had better have some foam, otherwise you don't get any lacing! :(
This was already known (Score:3, Funny)
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 [youtube.com]