Oct. 14, 2003 — A team of physicists has just determined the exact mechanism behind the luminescent beauty of the feathers in a peacock's tail.

The discovery could help to explain how certain hummingbirds, ducks, pheasants, insects and even objects, such as opals, achieve their brilliant colors.

According to a report published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, color in nature occurs due to two basic processes: pigmentation and structural coloring.

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