Thanks
to its incredible camouflage, you could easily pass a Gaboon viper
without even knowing it was there. Its cream and brown scales allow it
to blend in seamlessly with dead leaves while its black scales resemble
gaps on the forest floor. Like real gaps, no light appears to hit the
black scales and they seem to possess a depth the rest of the snake's
scales don't. But how do Gaboon vipers pull off this illusion?
New research shows this trick is possible thanks to nanostructures.
Using a scanning electron microscope, German researchers were able to
take the closest look yet at the viper's scales. Black scales possessed
more pronounced microstructures than paler scales, and these
microstructures had more intricate ridges than structures in lighter
areas.
When light hits the black scales it gets reflected and
dispersed around these miniscule ridges and structures, and as it
bounces around more and more is absorbed by the black pigment. Of the
light that hits these black scales, less than 11% is reflected away from
the snake's body.
This is the first time a snake has been
observed with this microstructure camouflage, but it's not the first
animal we know to use it. Butterflies such as the Ulysses butterfly use
the same method in the black areas of their wings. In future, the team
want to discover more about how these nanostructures work, and their
findings could help engineers design durable "ultra-black" materials.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/19Qt2V0
Photo: West African Gaboon viper (left, credit to Tim Vickers) and the
nanostructures on its black scales (right, credit to Spinner et al,
2013).
http://
http://www.wired.com/
Thanks
to its incredible camouflage, you could easily pass a Gaboon viper
without even knowing it was there. Its cream and brown scales allow it
to blend in seamlessly with dead leaves while its black scales resemble
gaps on the forest floor. Like real gaps, no light appears to hit the
black scales and they seem to possess a depth the rest of the snake's
scales don't. But how do Gaboon vipers pull off this illusion?
New research shows this trick is possible thanks to nanostructures. Using a scanning electron microscope, German researchers were able to take the closest look yet at the viper's scales. Black scales possessed more pronounced microstructures than paler scales, and these microstructures had more intricate ridges than structures in lighter areas.
When light hits the black scales it gets reflected and dispersed around these miniscule ridges and structures, and as it bounces around more and more is absorbed by the black pigment. Of the light that hits these black scales, less than 11% is reflected away from the snake's body.
This is the first time a snake has been observed with this microstructure camouflage, but it's not the first animal we know to use it. Butterflies such as the Ulysses butterfly use the same method in the black areas of their wings. In future, the team want to discover more about how these nanostructures work, and their findings could help engineers design durable "ultra-black" materials.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/19Qt2V0
Photo: West African Gaboon viper (left, credit to Tim Vickers) and the nanostructures on its black scales (right, credit to Spinner et al, 2013).
http://
http://www.wired.com/
New research shows this trick is possible thanks to nanostructures. Using a scanning electron microscope, German researchers were able to take the closest look yet at the viper's scales. Black scales possessed more pronounced microstructures than paler scales, and these microstructures had more intricate ridges than structures in lighter areas.
When light hits the black scales it gets reflected and dispersed around these miniscule ridges and structures, and as it bounces around more and more is absorbed by the black pigment. Of the light that hits these black scales, less than 11% is reflected away from the snake's body.
This is the first time a snake has been observed with this microstructure camouflage, but it's not the first animal we know to use it. Butterflies such as the Ulysses butterfly use the same method in the black areas of their wings. In future, the team want to discover more about how these nanostructures work, and their findings could help engineers design durable "ultra-black" materials.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/19Qt2V0
Photo: West African Gaboon viper (left, credit to Tim Vickers) and the nanostructures on its black scales (right, credit to Spinner et al, 2013).
http://
http://www.wired.com/
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