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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One thing that article stated was, "<FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>It's not surprising they are finding this kind of
color, but they are the first to describe how the color is working by getting
into the physics and structure of it," </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>According to the article, they found this speciment
in the museum, noticed the really neat colors and thought something
like, "Hey, let's see what it looks like under an electron microscope!"
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It suddenly came to mind just how many things in
our natural environment have not even been looked at under a traditional
microscope, let alone and electron microscope or STM. Could it be that many of
the MNT "parts" necessary for making an assembler already exist somewhere out
there in various places just waiting for someone to stumble onto them and bring
them into one place? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I can see it now:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>22 parts protein from rat urine bacteria
excretion</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>84 parts carbon from the shell of a
beetle</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>16 parts carbon from the slime of
cyanobacteria</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Stir into a soup, heat to 1600 degrees and it will
self-assemble.......</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(OK, so maybe it won't be THAT easy!
lol)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kevin Freels</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=avatar@renegadeclothing.com.au
href="mailto:avatar@renegadeclothing.com.au">Avatar Polymorph</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, January 27, 2004 10:00
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [extropy-chat] Opals to
opals</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<P><SPAN class=head2><A
href="http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/2/12/13/1">http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/2/12/13/1</A></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN class=head2>Beetle perfects artificial opal growth</SPAN> <BR><FONT
size=2><SMALL>22 December 2003</SMALL> </FONT></P>
<P><B>Researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, have discovered what they
say is the first example of an opal-type photonic crystal structure in an
animal. The intricate three-dimensional structure occurs in a small beetle
just a few centimetres long. If the beetle’s self-assembly process can be
emulated, the team says it could lead to a simpler and cheaper way of
producing artificial opals (<I>Nature</I> 426 786).</B></P>
<P>“The interesting thing is that this has been found in a living organism,”
said researcher Andrew Parker. “This means that the beetle must have cells
that are making the structure, which gives us something to copy. There is a
whole manufacturing process going on which starts with a series of chemicals
and ends with a perfect opal structure.” </P>
<P>The opal-making animal is the weevil <I>Pachyrhynchus argus</I>, a small
beetle found in forests in north-eastern Australia. Its body appears a
metallic green colour from all angles thanks to a photonic crystal structure
that resembles opal. </P>
<P>The vivid colour comes courtesy of thin, flat scales which occur in patches
over the beetle’s body. The scales consist of an outer shell and an inner
structure that contains layers of 250 nm diameter transparent spheres. </P>
<P>“The spheres are arranged in hexagonal-close packing order,” explained
Parker. “The scales contain the opal structure. There are tens of layers
packed on top of each other in a single scale.” </P>
<P>The scales produce the green colour by thin-film reflection. “Because we
have stacks of spheres instead of flat layers, we have a three-dimensional
structure where you can effectively form layers in many directions,” he said.
“The reflections from each of these layers are superimposed and you get a
colour-averaging effect which appears green.”</P>
<P style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><A name=author>About the author</A></P>
<P>Jacqueline Hewett is an award-winning news reporter on <I>Optics.org</I>
and <I>Opto & Laser Europe</I> magazine.</P></FONT></DIV>
<P>
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