Who is the darkest animal in nature? Is it a deep-sea fish, a bird of paradise, or a peacock spider?
Whether it is natural black or artificial black, 100% black does not exist, but the blackness of the above 3 animals exceeds 99.5%, ranking the hegemony of the black list.
All the way to the underworld, the pursuit of extreme black animals, the same goal, but the motivation is different, the means of long black are also different. Among them, who can ascend to the throne of the black boss, and what is the significance of our search for the black boss?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > super blackfish</h1>
Let's start with deep-sea fish, which are difficult for sunlight to penetrate the water layer after the ocean depth exceeds 200 meters. In the dark ocean, the black color that blends into the sea is the best camouflage color, not only to avoid predators, but also to lurk and catch small fish. The Duke team salvaged 18 species of black deep-sea fish, 16 of which had a blackness of more than 99.5 percent. The top 3 are: Dream Horn Sturgeon, Cave Mouth Spiny Fish (it also has a name: Pacific Black Dragon), And Luminous Torch Lamp Fish.
The ugly-looking deep-sea fish is not because no one sees it, so it is a long time not to seek entry. The realm it pursues wholeheartedly is: You care what I look like, and my purpose is to make you invisible to me. Don't say you can't see it in the deep sea, even in the sun, you can't see what it looks like. The dark skin of the deep-sea fish is like a black hole, absorbing all the light that shines on the body. The picture of the super blackfish below is an overexposed, edited picture.
Because there is light, we can see the appearance and color of things. The wavelength of the visible light spectrum is between 380 and 780 nm, and the light of different wavelengths corresponds to different colors. Melanin in the skin absorbs various wavelengths of light. The more light is absorbed, the less it is reflected, and the darker the skin becomes. The blackness represents the absorption rate of light, and when all the light is absorbed by the skin without a trace of reflection, the blackness of the skin is 100%. But so far, no material has reached 100% blackness.
The dream horned sturgeon has a reflectance of 0.044% to 480 nm wavelength light and an average reflectance of 0.051% to all wavelengths of visible light, that is, its blackness reaches 99.95%. The ultra-black blackness of the sturgeon comes from the dense accumulation of melanin. Below the basement membrane at the junction of the epidermis and dermis, there is a layer of melanin-filled organelles (melanoids), just where the black arrow points to in the picture.
There are loose collagen voids between the melanoid bodies of other dark fish, while the melanoid bodies of the sturgeon fish leave no gaps. Not only is it tightly arranged, but the size of the melanoid body of the trout is larger than that of other fish. The large melanoid bodies huddled shoulder to shoulder, capturing every ray of light that reached the skin.
What's even more amazing is that the trout, who is very confident in its own blackness, also lit a lamp overhead, and when the light was turned on, it could not illuminate its figure. The light of the overhead lamp can attract small fish foraging, and the black sturgeon under the lamp only needs to open its mouth and wait for the small fish to swim past the net.
What are the advantages of super black compared to ordinary black? The 2% reflectivity of the blackfish can reduce the predator's targeting distance by more than 6 times compared to the blackfish with a reflectivity of 0.5 per thousand. In other words, the predatory big fish see ordinary blackfish at a distance of 6 meters, but it is not within 1 meter to find super black sturgeon.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > bird of paradise</h1>
The black of deep-sea fish is camouflage color, and the black of other animals is different. The black feathers of the gorgeous bird of paradise can set off the beautiful blue color on the body. The birds that live on the island of New Guinea do not look black and outstanding. But when it came to the female bird of paradise and unfurled her skirt to show off her steps, the girl was stunned.
The melanoid body of the trout absorbs light and appears black, like the color of the flower, which is a pigment color, also called a chemical color. The color of the bird's feathers, in addition to the chemical color, there are also physical colors. When you see the color of the feather, part of it is the color of the pigment appearance, and part of it is the color of the light reflected by the tiny structure on the feather, called the structural color, or the physical color. Physical colors are characterized by different colors that can be seen from different angles when illuminated by light, such as colorful soap bubbles. The black crow, illuminated by light, is covered with a metallic sheen, which is the light reflected by the feather structure.
Birds of paradise, like crows, have physical colors on their feathers. However, the black feathers of the bird of paradise are not the same as the black feathers of the crow, which reflect light, while the black feathers of the bird of paradise absorb light. The crow is a shiny black that is shiny and slippery, and the Bird of Paradise is a matte black that rejects all reflections.
In the picture, the details of ordinary black feathers and super black feathers are compared, and the feathers of ordinary feathers are tiled and arranged, with smooth edges and loose intervals in the middle. The microstructure of the ultra-black feathers resembles three-dimensional cypress leaves, with feather twigs curved upwards, with toothed and toothed leaf teeth at the edges, with a tight structure and uneven surfaces. The microstructure of the leaves forms a deep curved cavity, and when the light hits the feather, it is dissipated and absorbed by the cavity after multiple scattering in the cavity. The blackness of physical colors is no less than that of chemical colors, and the blackest blackness of The Gorgeous Bird of Paradise is 99.95%.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > peacock spider</h1>
Animals that use material structure to absorb light are not only birds of paradise, but also peacock spiders in the top 3 of nature's black list. A spider that lives in Australia, smaller than a fingernail shell, is as beautiful as a peacock. It uses ultra-black black patches on the body to contrast other colors, making the color more dazzling. Peacock spiders are like birds of paradise, always showing off their dancing skills when facing their sisters. He cocked his colorful belly and swayed left and right in front of his sister. The multicolored patterns on the belly shine against the background of black spots.
The Harvard team explored the secrets of the peacock spider black spot. The picture shows details of the dark spots on the belly of two peacock spiders.
The black spots on the stratum corneum are covered with regular bumps. In contrast, the stratum corneum of ordinary black spiders is smooth. The undulating skin, like a bubble pad, forms a cavity that captures light, appearing super black. The blackest patches on peacock spiders have a blackness of 99.65%.
Peacock spiders, like birds of paradise, always appear next to bright, highly saturated structured colors. Ultra-black spots can eliminate the mirror reflection around the bright patches, and the girls standing opposite look over and can't see the ambient light reflected by those bright color blocks, thinking that the color blocks themselves are glowing, and are deeply attracted by their beautiful glowing faces.
Colors on animals can play many roles, such as camouflage, imitation, warning, or social signals. The extreme blackness of the sturgeon, disguised for survival. The extreme blackness of birds and spiders attracts the attention of girls in order to compete for reproductive rights. For individual individuals, survival is most important, but for ethnic groups, the right to reproduce is more important than survival. You see those beautiful male animals, spending the limited resources of their lives on dressing up, not on increasing muscle and renewing weapons. 3.6 billion years of evolutionary experience tells us that conquering girls is more important than defeating enemies.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > artificial black</h1>
The research team has been exploring the super black in nature, just to give the animals a super black list? Of course not, the topic of exploring super black dates back to 30 years ago, when it was first launched into space by hubble. NASA astronomers have found that when looking at faint signals in the distance through telescopes, they tend to intercept the light of brighter celestial bodies. Brighter objects interfere with the observation of the target object.
Engineers applied the blackest paint at the time, Z306 polyurethane paint, around the hubble optics, but the paint could only absorb 90% of the light, and could not filter out the light effects of other luminous objects.
Is there any darker paint? The NASA team turned its eyes to nature to see if their partners in land, sea, and air had any darker materials. In exploring the super black on the animals, the team found one of the most important key points. It turns out that it is not enough to rely solely on the chemical components of the material to blacken, but also to use geometry to capture photons. As a result, carbon nanotubes became the material of choice.
In 2007, the team arranged nanoscale thick carbon tubes in parallel to form a 99% hollow flake material. Photons fall on the material, scatter left and right in space without finding a way out, and are eventually captured. Carbon nanotubes successfully absorb 99.5% of light, which is 10 times higher than the absorption rate of Z306.
After the successful design of carbon nanotubes, the artificial black became blacker and blacker, and the most famous mask made of Vantablack black material in the video was developed by the British Surrey Nanosystems Company. The facial features of the black mask are exactly the same as the metal mask next to it, but you can only see the outline of the black mask, but you can't see the facial features on the mask, just like when you are in the sunlight, you can only see the outline of the dream horn squid, but you can't see its appearance.
The absorption rate of black material for visible light below 750 nm wavelength reaches 99.965%. Deep-sea fish, birds of paradise, peacock spiders, the size of the microstructure on the body is measured in microns, but the artificial black microstructure can be smaller, and the size is measured in nanometers, which is better. Artificial black surpassed the blackest blackness in nature and ascended to the throne of the Black Boss.
By painting Hubble with black material, scientists have seen details that were previously invisible, such as the planets around dazzling stars and the dim surfaces of the oceans next to The Bright Ice on Earth.
The night gave me black eyes, which I wanted to use to find the blackest black on the blue star.
P.S. Today continues to update the secrets of nature series of articles, this is the 37th article: Natural Black.