Peacocks Mix Colors

While the wonderful blues, greens, and purples of a peacock's tail feathers catch the eyes of potential mates, it's the brown that scientists are interested in.

Tiny reflective crystals give the peacock, and many other animals, its fantastic color schemes. The color each crystal reflects is based on the crystal's shape, rather than its chemical composition, as is the case with pigments.

Generally these crystals only produce pure colors, like blue, green, yellow, and purple. But scientists think the crystals responsible for the brown in peacock feathers are somehow mixing colors.

Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have inspected the microscopic structure of the brown spots in peacock feathers and have found the brown microstrucures to be much more complex than most natural crystals.  

As the researchers continue to study the peacock crystals, they hope to learn new ways to manipulate light to develop cutting edge optical instruments as well as developing new paints and coatings that fade less over time.

This research will be published in the upcoming journal Physical Review E.