Shrimps' eyes may lead to new DVD players

BRISTOL, England, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- British scientists say they've found mantis shrimp can see in 12 colors -- humans see in only three -- and can distinguish various forms of polarized light.

University of Bristol researchers said the shrimp -- found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef -- have the most complex vision system known to science and could be the inspiration for the next generation of DVD and CD players.

Special light-sensitive cells in mantis shrimp eyes act as quarter-wave plates that can rotate the plane of the polarization of a light wave as it travels through it, the scientists said. That capability makes it possible for mantis shrimp to convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light and vice versa. Man-made quarter-wave plates perform that function in CD and DVD players and in circular polarizing filters for cameras.

However, the scientists noted, such artificial devices only tend to work well for one color of light while the natural mechanism in the mantis shrimp works nearly perfectly across the whole visible spectrum – from near-ultraviolet to infrared.

"Our work reveals for the first time the unique design and mechanism of the quarter-wave plate in the mantis shrimp's eye," said Nicholas Roberts, the lead author of the study. "It really is exceptional -- outperforming anything we humans have so far been able to create."

The research is reported in the journal in Nature Photonics.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/10/27/Shrimps-eyes-may-lead-to-new-DVD-players/UPI-71841256653121/.