Mantis Shrimp Shells May Inspire Next-Generation Computer Chips
虾姑壳为次世代计算芯片带来灵感
Mantis shrimp shells contain ultrathin polarizing materials, which could find use in optical computer chips.
虾姑壳含有超薄的偏振材料，这种材料将有利于光学计算机芯片。
撰文/播音 克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔(Christopher Intagliata)
翻译 Meatle
审校 乔虹
Mantis shrimp are well known for their powerful punch… strong enough to crack aquarium glass. But they also have incredible technicolor vision. "They can see in 12 different colors, they can see in different forms of polarized light, and they have some very bright and flashy colors on different parts of their bodies that they can display to each other." Nick Roberts, a sensory biologist at the University of Bristol, in the U.K.
虾姑以它们强有力的拳头著称…这一拳的强度足够打破水族馆的玻璃。然而，在彩色视力方面，它们也是如此的令人惊异。“他们能够辨别出12中不同的颜色，他们能看到不同形式的偏振光。他们身上的不同部分均有着相当光鲜闪亮的色彩，它们将这些展现给同伴。”英国布尔斯托尔大学(the University of Bristol)的感应生物学家尼克·罗伯斯(Nick Roberts)说。
Roberts and his colleagues investigated how the mantis shrimp create those flashy polarized signals, by examining their shells with an electron microscope. And they found that, unlike the polarizers in our sunglasses, cameras and LCD screens, the mantis shrimp use a completely novel way of polarizing light. And their method doesn't require the material to be as thick to be effective--meaning their polarizers are incredibly thin—500 times thinner, in fact, than the ones we've got.
罗伯斯与他的同僚通过电子显微镜分析了虾姑的外壳，考察了虾姑如何创造它们闪亮的偏振信号。他们发现，不同于我们在太阳眼镜、相机和LCD屏幕上所使用的技术，虾姑使用了一种全新的方式来偏振光。这种偏振光的方式并不依赖物料的厚度，这意味着它们的偏振片可以做到难以置信的轻薄——厚度仅为我们所用的偏振片的500分之一。
"I think like many cases of biomimetic inspiration, Nature has had 50-odd million years to do its research and development and has come up with all sorts of solutions that we've never thought of." The results appear in the journal Scientific Reports. [Thomas M. Jordan et al, A shape-anisotropic reflective polarizer in a stomatopod crustacean]
“我认为这就像其他仿生技术的灵感来源一样，大自然在这5000多万年间不断地‘研究’和‘发展’，造就了各种各样的我们从未想过的解决方案。”该项研究发表在《科学报告》(Scientific Reports)上。[Thomas M. Jordan et al, A shape-anisotropic reflective polarizer in a stomatopod crustacean]
And while you probably don't need thinner polarized sunglasses, Roberts says this could be a game changer for next-generation computer chips—optical chips—which use photons to perform calculations. "One of the things we would love to be able to do is actually create self-assembling polarizers on a microscopic scale, or even a nanoscale, that go onto photonic chips." Seems fitting that mantis shrimp would hold one of the secrets to making our technology… well… a little shrimpier.
可能你并不需要更轻薄偏光太阳眼镜，但罗伯特认为，这项技术将引发次世代的电脑芯片的变革，即使用光子进行运算的光学芯片。“我们希望实现的是制造出一种能够自组装的偏振片，其大小在微米尺度，甚至是纳米尺度，以用于光子芯片。”看上去虾姑有着使我们的技术进一步微型化——小如虾姑的秘密。
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