Shrimp DVD?
The mantis shrimp’s capability to see a wider color spectrum than a human’s could inspire a new generation of DVD player, scientists have found.
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“Humans see three colors that, combined, allow us to enjoy the visible light spectrum. The mantis shrimp sees 12 colors, ranging into the near-ultraviolet to infrared parts of the spectrum. The creature can also distinguish different forms of polarized light. Scientists now say this sea shrimp’s remarkable eye could inspire a new generation of DVD and CD players. Mantis shrimp found on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and have the most complex vision systems known to science. Special light-sensitive cells rotate the plane of the oscillations, or polarization, of a light wave as it travels through it. This allows the shrimps to convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light and vice versa,” writes Live Science.
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