THE magnificent tail display of a peacock is one of nature's most recognisable spectacles, with their iridescent blue and green feathers captivating observers for centuries.
Recent scientific research has uncovered something unexpected hidden within these stunning plumes – the ability to produce laser light under specific conditions.
Can peacock feathers actually produce lasers?
Verdict:
TRUE
Peacock feathers have been found to possess the remarkable ability to emit laser light under laboratory conditions.
Just so that we are clear, "peacock" refers specifically to male peafowl, not the species as a whole.
Peafowl is the correct term for the bird species, with males called peacocks and females called peahens.
Anyway, researchers discovered that peacock feathers have tiny reflective structures that can amplify light into a laser beam after dyeing the feathers and energising them with an external light source.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, offered the first example of a laser cavity in the animal kingdom.
Florida Polytechnic University physicist Nathan Dawson and his colleagues stained the feathers with a common dye and pumped them with soft pulses of light, using laboratory instruments to detect beams of yellow-green laser light that were too faint to see with the naked eye.
The eyespots on the fowl's fabulous feathers have unique properties that align light waves by bouncing them back and forth, effectively turning them into yellow-green lasers.
On a microscopic scale, the extravagant eyespots of a peacock's tail are built like optical machines with arrays of nanoscale rods and sheaths arranged with mathematical precision.
These intricate architectures, honed by evolution to dazzle mates with shimmering blues and greens, turn out to be capable of lasing.
However, the process does require specific laboratory conditions.
The feathers are treated with fluorescent dye and illuminated with a specific type of laser light.
Instead of reflecting their usual rainbow of colours, these feathers begin to produce laser-like beams.
The team stressed that the feather was found to require multiple staining cycles before laser emission was observed.
"It's like rolling two 100-sided dice and always getting the same two numbers," said physicist Nathan Dawson, the study's lead author.
The scientists saw the same laser lines in every part of the feather's eyespot, regardless of colour.
There's no evidence that the peacocks are using these laser properties for communication or display, so researchers believe that it's probably just a byproduct of the way their feathers are built.
References:
1. https://www.science.org/
2. https://www.sciencealert.com/
3. https://www.nature.com/
