Meet a future jewel of technology: gem of a beetle which thinks it's an opal

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | December 18, 2003 | By Deborah Smith, Science Reporter

[miltonim]

This Australian beetle really is a gem: the greenish scales on its back are identical to opal.

Andrew Parker, a former researcher at the Australian Museum, was amazed when he examined the internal structure of the scales under a powerful microscope and realised it was the same as that of the precious stone.

"This is the first time opal has been found in animals," said Dr Parker, who is now at Oxford University in Britain.

The find could lead to a new method for synthesising opals, not only for use in jewellery, but as components, known as photonic crystals, for the computers of the future, which will rely on the movement of light.

The beetle, Pachyrhynchus argus, is commonly found in the rainforests of north-eastern Queensland. Its particular pattern of patches of metallic gleam had probably evolved to make it recognisable to other members of its species in the dim light under the forest canopy, Dr Parker said. "The optical effect created by this weevil makes it appear strongly coloured, whatever angle you look at it."

The discovery is published today in the journal Nature.

The colour of most opals, and the beetle's scales, is the result of light being reflected from layers of transparent spheres, packed in a precise hexagonal pattern.

The beetle reflects only one colour because all of its nano-spheres are exactly the same size - about 250 nanometres across (a nanometre is a billionth of a metre) - whereas multi-coloured opals have a range of different sized nano-spheres.

Dr Parker said that although liquid opals were easy to make, synthesising solid ones was notoriously difficult. His team has begun to try to fathom how the beetle creates an opal-like structure using the chemical "factories" inside its cells.

"If we can emulate the weevil's means of opal production this would represent a technological breakthrough, particularly since opal, as a photonic crystal, has numerous industrial applications," he said.

Scientists have already had some success copying nature, recently creating artificial mother of pearl by mimicking the way abalones build up nanolayers of different materials to make their shells.

But the beetle's method for making perfect opals posed a bigger challenge than this, because it probably used clever pieces of tiny machinery, such as molecular motors, and templates to extrude the nano-spheres, Dr Parker said.

[miltonim]

Pachyrhynchus argus . . . layers of transparent spheres packed in a precise hexagonal pattern in this beetle emulate that of the opal.

[liberty or death]

Once again the Creators genious can be seen in the least of his creations.

[stylin_geek]

But, it is all an accident, right? No intelligent thought? No driving force? Evolution is responsible for these creatures?

[Consort]

...Iraqchnid.

[ClearCase_guy]

But the beetle's method for making perfect opals posed a bigger challenge than this, because it probably used clever pieces of tiny machinery

What an odd way of putting it. Beetles now construct and make use of tiny machinery. Who knew?

I prefer to think that God created a beetle, and the means within the beetle, to create opals. That certainly makes more sense than the notion that beetles make use of clever bits of machinery that are "just there". And I'd like to know how natural selection would take the many tiny steps toward this achievement -- presumably with no payoff from any of the tiny steps, but a big payoff when the coloring is eventually synthesized. Now THAT's a fairy tale.

[jennyp]

But, it is all an accident, right? No intelligent thought? No driving force? Evolution is responsible for these creatures?

It's not an accident, but there's no intelligence per se involved. The driving force is natural selection. There's no evidence to make one think that anything but evolution is responsible for these creatures. (Except for a vague, free-floating feeling that natural processes shouldn't be able to create complex things.)

[jennyp]

Andrew Parker is the author of "In the Blink of an Eye", which sets forth a provocative theory for why the Cambrian Explosion happened: Animals first developed sight, which set several arms-races in motion, such as predators' eyesight vs. prey's camouflage, and mating displays.

See:

• Sydney Morning Herald - Vision of the past
• Boston Globe - Darkness visible: the birth of a theory
• American Scientist - On the First Day, God Said . . .
• Boston Globe (as cached by CrEvo:TED)- Eyes key to theory for early explosion of life
• Was Darwin Wrong? - The Cambrian explosion and eye evolution solved at one stroke

[jennyp]

Crevo PING.

[Xenalyte]

I adore opals. I'd rather have an opal in my wedding ring than a diamond. (And don't think Xena's Guy is living in ignorance of that little tidbit.)

[liberty or death]

check out www.biblebelievers.com for some fact filled literature that removes evolution as a possibility.

[jennyp]

Here's a page on the chemistry of opals. Being an amorphous collection of hydrated silicon globules, I'm not sure what's necessarily so miraculous about a beetle extruding it on its shell. I can see where it would find a use, either as something to frighten off predators or (more likely) as a sexual display.

[stylin_geek]

See my homepage. I guess maybe I needed to use the /sarcasm at the end of what I wrote.

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[stylin_geek]

Rats, Xenalyte has a guy....

[Victoria Delsoul]

The find could lead to a new method for synthesising opals, not only for use in jewellery, but as components, known as photonic crystals, for the computers of the future, which will rely on the movement of light.

Wow, I wouldn't mind to have one of these little guys on my pinky, hehe.

[PatrickHenry]

[Victoria Delsoul]

Wow, that's beautiful. Thanks so much, Patrick!

[PatrickHenry]

You deserve it.

[hellinahandcart]

I adore opals. I'd rather have an opal in my wedding ring than a diamond.

I'm with you, except that opals are a lot more fragile than diamonds. It would be heartbreaking to watch the stone in your engagement ring crack after a few years of hard wear.

Pendants and earrings are the way to go. *Large* ones.

[hellinahandcart]

Opal ping.