Sign in / up

back to article Fish skin points to better LEDs

A trick of the light evolved by silvery fish to avoid predators could help improve optical devices like LEDs, according to a study in Nature Photonics. While polarisation has many applications in photonics, non-polarising devices are also important. The research – abstract here – took a look at how fish such as sardines and …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Lance 3

    SLED?

    So would it he a Shit Light Emitting Diode then? Batman will be pleased and Wayne Enterprises has a new market.

    0 2
  2. Nuno
    WTF?

    "conceal them from predators, such as dolphin" - and as everyone knows, dolphins don't use a sonar to spot their preys...

    2 1
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    What colour of led would sir like?

    Fish colour please....

    Imagine the smell though...........

    1 0
  4. Malc
    Trollface

    Conceal or Reveal

    'conceal them from predators, such as dolphin'

    or if these new fish-fangled LEDs were to be used on bicycles...

    'reveal then to predators, such as buses'

    If any of you have ever driven (or cycled) along dark roads and come across a cyclist using powerful 'offroad lights' you'll have noticed that brighter, more efficient LEDs are sorely needed.

    2 0
    1. Alan Brown Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Offroad lights

      A good chunk of those are simple MR12 60 degree led lamps when what's needed is pinspots.

      'tis a pity the police won't ticket cyclists for having blinding lights.

      3 2
      1. John Robson Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Offroad lights

        'tis a pity the police won't ticket motorists for having blinding lights (or badly adjusted lights, or failed lights)

        Particularly those hateful DLRs which are now compulsory on new cars - and they are REALLY badly dazzling.

        6 0
  5. Kobus Botes
    Boffin

    Sonar

    A happy side-effect of the dual-crystal scales is that it scatters the acoustic frequencies that dolphins use to locate prey, rendering them invisible to sonar as well (aka stealth-scales).

    The world-wide collapse in sardine populations does not represent a collapse at all - they have just evolved to hide better from us, since fishing boats also use sonar to locate schools of sardines.

    It also protects the silvery fish against lasers, causing a massive collapse in the population of frikken sharks with frikken lasers (when last did you see one of those, huh? Huh!?).

    Maybe the shiny bits seen on Mars are actually bits of silvery fish scales that had broken off. The total lack of silvery fish reported by Curiosity is evidence of the efficacy of these scales in hiding them in plain sight (scaly bastards, those Martian silvery fish).

    6 2
  6. Bill Neal
    WTF?

    guanine...

    is one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, Is that not more important than guano? We all have guanine in us. Yes, it is in our waste too but why does that matter?

    0 0
  7. Triggerfish

    Dolphin

    "conceal them from predators, such as dolphin" - and as everyone knows, dolphins don't use a sonar to spot their preys...

    I think it would be more realistic to say distract at close range, a dolphin swimming into a school of fish is more likely using vision at that point.

    1 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like