Beer and Birds

Some of the brightest colors in nature are created by tiny nanostructures with a structure similar to beer foam or a sponge, according to Yale University researchers.

Most colors in nature—from the color of our skin to the green of trees—are produced by pigments. But the bright blue feathers found in many birds, such as Bluebirds and Blue Jays, are instead produced by nanostructures. Under an electron microscope, these structures look like sponges with air bubbles.

“Many biologists think that plumage color can encode information about quality – basically, that a bluer male is a better mate,” said Richard Prum, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and one of the paper’s authors. “Such information would have to be encoded in the feather as the bubbles grow. I think our hypothesis that phase separation is involved provides less opportunity for encoding information about quality than most biologists thought. At the same time, it’s exciting to think about other ways birds might be using phase separation.”

Finish reading here.