It is something never documented before in the animal kingdom, recently discovered by science. The source of this superpower is in the fascinating “eyes” of male feathers.
The tail penalties of the peachrs hide a secret that seems out of a science fiction movie: the structures are able to issue light laserrevealed a study last July at Scientific Reports.
It is the “eyes” in the feathers that, after a special dye infusion process, can function as optical microchavies, generating highly organized light beams – one of the impressive superpowers of nature.
The investigation, conducted by scientists from Florida Polytechnic University and Youngstown State University, has started curiosity about the mechanisms that produce plumage colors. Using a special laser dye and a controlled infusion method, researchers detected light emissions, Something Jamais documented before no animal kingdom.
When we talk about laser, it is about aligning waves of light so that they all “walk in step” within an optical cavity. In the case of peacock penalties, the microscopic structures present in the “eyes” seem to do just that: reflecting the light repeatedly until it skirt organized as a laser beam.
The researchers highlight in the study that the penalties needed multiple dye cycles so that the effect arose. This suggests that the dye penetrated the keratin structure, revealing a pattern of microscopic resonators.
These microstructures did not correspond to typical known natural lasers formats, but indicate very small and repeated optical cavities throughout the penalty, each emitting laser at the same wavelengths. For now, it is still unclear for scientists why evolution has incorporated lasers into the paw tail penalties.
