The image-forming mirror in the eye of the scallop
Benjamin A Palmer1, Gavin J Taylor2, Vlad Brumfeld3
1Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel. benjamin.palmer@weizmann.ac.il lia.addadi@weizmann.ac.il.
Abstract:
Scallops possess a visual system comprising up to 200 eyes, each containing a concave mirror rather than a lens to focus light. The hierarchical organization of the multilayered mirror is controlled for image formation, from the component guanine crystals at the nanoscale to the complex three-dimensional morphology at the millimeter level. The layered structure of the mirror is tuned to reflect the wavelengths of light penetrating the scallop's habitat and is tiled with a mosaic of square guanine crystals, which reduces optical aberrations. The mirror forms images on a double-layered retina used for separately imaging the peripheral and central fields of view. The tiled, off-axis mirror of the scallop eye bears a striking resemblance to the segmented mirrors of reflecting telescopes.
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