Scatterings
Eyeing Shrimp Eyes for Manipulating Polarization
Researchers have found that a certain kind of shrimp not only sees polarized light, but has cells in its eyes that can manipulate it more efficiently than our best technology.
Mantis shrimp can perceive light polarization because their eyes have cells that act as quarter-wave plates.
Polarized-light detection has a range of scientific and technological uses— from the mundane (sunglasses) to the arcane (detecting naturally occurring masers in space). Now researchers have found that a certain kind of shrimp not only sees polarized light, but has cells in its eyes that can manipulate it more efficiently than our best technology.
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