Gemstone beetles in Australia

[joeq]

I saw an article today that they found a beetle in Queensland, Australia that naturally makes the precious gemstone opal.




http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/17/1071337033248.html




The beetle evolved to make the gem on its back due to the exceptional light return: The pattern appears strongly colored, whatever angle you look at it, which helps to make it recognizable to other members of its species in the dim light under the forest canopy. So "brilliance" and "light return" are important in nature, too...




This beetle is particularly interesting because humans have not been able to successfully synthesizing solid opals yet. By studying this beetle, they hope to develop a way to synthesize solid opal and other photonic crystals. Beyond gemstones, this has important uses in optical computing.




Apologies if it is off-topic. I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe someday we''ll find the elusive D-IF H&A beetle /idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif.

 

[valeria101]

I thought opal has been synthetized? Or wasn't it good enough? This is a way cool... analogy.

 

[DiamondExpert]

G'day:

Kewel! Nothing succeeds like nature itself! Nice find!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Scientists at the Aussie CSIRO developed synthetic opal around 35 years ago.
They tried to patent it to control illicit production because it is so easy to make.
There are buckets of it being made in China. All you need is a bucket and silica jell and a stable (correct) room temperature and a month or 2.

 

[Toska]

----------------
On 12/20/2003 2:31:53 PM DiamondExpert wrote:

G'day:

Kewel! Nothing succeeds like nature itself! Nice find!----------------

Where does Harry Kewell come into this topic?

True, he is an absolute genius. He put's any player from England to shame