Starfish Eyes

2001/08/23 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Zoologia
• Fisika

Many times it has been said that we have much to learn from Nature. And that is what shows us the recent discovery of the starfish Ophiocoma wendtii. In fact, they have modeled their external skeleton and have made very precise lenses to use it as eyes. In the upper part of the outer skeleton were formed corks of calcite of diameter approximately twenty millimeters. These corks collect the light and direct it to the place where nerve cells begin. They focus light with great precision, more than any man-made lens, according to Joanna Aizenberg, discoverer at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies in New Jersey.

Starfish use them to search for dark and hidden places at the bottom of the oceans. Researchers do not know the degree of accuracy of the images they can collect. At the moment they know that these starfish “see” the light and direction of the movements.