This is quite a crustacean. It's called a mantis shrimp. Colorful little devil, huh? Well, get this. Humans see in three colors, but some species of mantis shrimp can see in as many as twelve. Yeah, I know. That's cool. Dr. Nicholas Roberts thinks so too. He's with the Ecology of Vision Group at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. He's part of a team that's been studying the eyesight of one of the 250 or so known species of mantis shrimp in the world.
The idea is to get a better handle on just how the eyes of the mantis shrimp manage to see so many different kinds of light. To what end, you might ask? Well, for that, you'll need to listen in. Suffice to say that if you're a Netflix fan, it might mean a better playback and viewing experience for your DVDs...you know, down the road a ways. My first question to Nick: What was it about the mantis shrimp's eyes that got your scientific juices flowing?
A Conversation with Nick Roberts of The University of Bristol
(Photo by Jenny via Wikipedia)
Tags: Biomimetics, Synthetic Biology
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