Nature & Environment

Fish use reflection to avoid predators

By T.K. Randall
October 24, 2012 ·  3 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.0 Tanaka Juuyoh Certain fish have evolved a reflective skin so effective that it acts almost like an invisibility cloak that helps to hide them from sight regardless of which angle they are being viewed from. Their skin is made up of alternating layers of cytoplasm in addition to guanine crystals that combine to create a unique reflective property.

"What these fish do is get around a fundamental law of reflection," said biologist Nicholas Roberts. "The polarization happens over a range of angles instead of one, and the end product of having all the layers together is that it creates a polarization-neutral reflector."

Source: New York Times | Comments (3)

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