Paper published
Eric’s long-time collaborators Vinod Saranathan and Richard Prum, have recently discovered the first three dimensional photonic crystals made from protein.
Birds make beautiful colors by scattering light from nanostructures made from protein. Usually, these structures are amorphous.
A team of researchers comprising of longtime's Eric collaborators external pageVinod Saranathan and external pageRichard Prum discovered the first three dimensional photonic crystals made from protein in the feather barbs of blue-winged leafbirds.
Amazingly, this crystal has an exotic single-gyroid symmetry, which has alluded materials science at this length scale for decades. Read more about it in the external pageProceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.
