[Journey to the Microcosmos] Why Are Some Birds Blue? (youtu.be)

submitted 1 year ago by Peter1986C@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org

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cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7397962

Another video by Journey to the Microcosmos, in which they take a look at something else than ciliates, diatoms etc.

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[-] Jdreben@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Beautiful video. Evolution is remarkable. Like all good videos on science it makes me want to know more.

Lot of words I will not remember but what I will remember enough to google is that it is microscopic assortment and “hollowness” that selectively filters wavelengths to produce reflection that enables these beautiful “structural” rather than I guess pigment-based, blues.

Quote I found by googling, trust the source more than the quote — “Structural colors are created by the physical form, or structure, of some plants, animals, and minerals. For example, the Blue Morpho butterfly's wings have microscopic scales with tiny grooves in them; the grooves amplify blue color reflection, while canceling out every other color.” http://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/featured-collections/what-makes-things-blue#:~:text=Structural%20colors%20are%20created%20by,canceling%20out%20every%20other%20color.

So in my own paraphrased and cobbled together words, structural color is different from pigment. Pigment is based primarily on the absorption of light and reflection back of some of it, while structural color is based purely on the reflection of light by microscopic structures somehow arranged to wavelengths of light.

Science is insane. Truly a remarkable world.

[-] forestG@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So in my own paraphrased and cobbled together words, structural color is different from pigment. Pigment is based primarily on the absorption of light and reflection back of some of it, while structural color is based purely on the reflection of light by microscopic structures somehow arranged to wavelengths of light.

Structural color depends on the arrangement (structure) of the organelles that will produce certain effects on the way light travels when it meets them. Color from just pigments depends on the type of pigment which determines which wavelengths will be absorbed from it and which will be reflected. You can have certain structural color from melanosomes that contain pigments positioned in a manner relevant to the observable light properties (which for example will produce blue from a pigment other than blue, mentioned as rare in the video). So, they are different, but they can co-exist (pigmentation & structure that facilitates certain light phenomena) in organelles like melanosomes.

Beautiful subject :-)