God’s Brilliant Design in NatureThe Eye of a Lobster

How It WorksOur eyes focuses light using a concave lens to refract or bend it. A lobster’s eyes works by reflecting light with perfectly square facets that make its eye look like graph paper . As many as 3000 can be found in some species such as the Norway lobster. The sides of the facets on a lobster’s eye are flat, shiny mirrors that are precisely arranged to reflect incoming parallel beams of light at one focus at the retina. They are right angled so that the eye can make an image out of light rays from any direction and have a length two times longer than its width to make most beams of light reflect off of exactly two sides. Being able to have a wide peripheral view is advantageous in the dark. In the light the eyes have an opaque pigment to block all lights except for those parallel to the tubes. Scientists use this design to create devices that reflect light instead of refracting it.

Lobster Eye

Astronomers could not figure out a way to focus x-rays from certain heavenly bodies. Very hot or energetic objects can give off these rays. X-rays can penetrate a lot of materials like glass lens, but really dense materials like led and concrete can shield against them. Robert Angel from the University of Arizona pointed out that the waves could be reflected towards a focus using the concept of a lobster’s eye. It would use mirrors that can reflect x-rays. This x-ray telescope would have higher sensitivity and resolution than modern x-ray telescopes and would be able to observe the whole sky at once. This would be advantageous because sources of x-rays brighten and dim without warning. Right now the x-ray telescope astronomers are using is the Chandra X-ray Observatory. To the left are pictures they have received from it.

Lobster’s Eye in Technology

X-ray Telescope

Eagle Nebula

Cat’s Eye Nebula

Lobster’s Eye in Technology

The Lobster Eye X-ray Image Detector is a hand held device that allows us to see through objects. It emits weak x-ray beams , and then detects the returning rays with a lobster eye made of x-ray reflecting material. It has sparked an interest for the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security Administration. In the future you might see these in airports.

L.E.X.I.D

Fine microchips in computers are made using the method of photolithography. This is when a special beam of parallel light is shined through a stencil onto a semiconducting material. This changes the material so that when it is exposed to acid it is unchanged. The acid etches away the rest of the material that is not exposed to the parallel beams of light. The microchips can only be so small because when they use refraction the light only bends around the edges. It is very expensive to shoot parallel beams of light. This is where the reverse design of the lobster’s eye comes in. The design of a lobsters eye allows someone to create parallel x-rays. X-rays are ideal because they have a smaller wavelength than ultraviolet rays. When x-rays are strategically shot at the mirrors they create parallel beams of light. Using this method of reflection, microchip producers will be able to create even finer microchips.

Lobster’s Eye in TechnologyReverse Lobster Eye

ConclusionA lobster’s eyes are an example of the brilliant design of God when he created the earth. Today, the design is used to create devices that can change the world.