{"id":2925,"date":"2014-09-02T19:05:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2014-09-02T13:08:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T18:08:59","slug":"light-scattering-crystals-found-in-canadian-fossil-weevils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/light-scattering-crystals-found-in-canadian-fossil-weevils\/","title":{"rendered":"Light-scattering crystals found in Canadian fossil weevils"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2920\" style=\"width: 606px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/paired.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2920\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/paired.jpg\" alt=\"The iridescent colours in scales from a fossilized weevil shell found in the Yukon (left) are formed by tiny light-scattering crystals (scanning electron micrograph, right). The discovery offers insight into the evolution of these crystals, which could be mimicked by humans in banknote security features or electronic devices. (Photo credit: Maria McNamara)\" width=\"596\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/paired.jpg 596w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/paired-300x151.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The iridescent colours in scales from a fossilized weevil shell found in the Yukon (left) are formed by tiny light-scattering crystals (scanning electron micrograph, right). The discovery offers insight into the evolution of these crystals, which could be mimicked by humans in banknote security features or electronic devices. (Photo credit: Maria McNamara)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Scientists have found unique light-scattering crystals in a 700,000-year-old fossilized bug from Gold Run, Yukon.\u00a0Modern weevils also produce such crystals, but until now not much was known about their evolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The crystals exploit quantum phenomena to shine bright red and green when examined closely, but from afar the colours blend to produce a muddy brown that the insect uses for camouflage. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Understanding how nature manipulates light with crystals could help humans create new security measures for currency or design new electronic devices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span>Original research paper<\/span><\/span>\u00a0published in the<em>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Journal of the Royal Society Interface<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<strong>September 2, 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span><em><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Maria McNamara, University College Cork,\u00a0Republic of Ireland<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have found unique light-scattering crystals in a 700,000-year-old fossilized bug from Gold Run, Yukon.\u00a0Modern weevils also produce such crystals, but until now not much was known about their evolution. The crystals exploit quantum phenomena to shine bright red and green when examined closely, but from afar the colours blend to produce a muddy brown [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[917,2099],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-evolution","tag-light"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SEM-micrograph-fossil-weevil-scale-fractured-showing-3D-photonic-crystal.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-Lb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2926,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions\/2926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}