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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/scientists-use-peacock-feathers-to-make-frickin-laser-beams/ [arstechnica.com]

Peacock feathers are greatly admired for their bright iridescent colors, but it turns out they can also emit laser light when dyed multiple times, according to a paper [nature.com] published in the journal Scientific Reports. Per the authors, it's the first example [science.org] of a biolaser cavity within the animal kingdom.

As previously reported [arstechnica.com], the bright iridescent colors in things like peacock feathers and butterfly wings don't come from any pigment molecules but from how they are structured.
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Essentially, they form a diffraction grating [gizmodo.com], except photonic crystals only produce certain colors, or wavelengths, of light, while a diffraction grating will produce the entire spectrum, much like a prism.
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There have been prior examples of random laser emissions in everything from stained bovine bones [optica.org] and blue coral skeletons [sciencedirect.com] to insect wings [nih.gov], parrot feathers [nature.com], and human tissue [nature.com], as well as salmon iridiphores [sciencedirect.com]. The authors of this most recent study were interested in whether they could produce similar laser emissions using peacock feathers and hopefully identify the specific mechanism.
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The team observed laser emissions in two distinct wavelengths for all color regions of the feathers' eyespots, with the green color regions emitting the most intense laser light. However, they did not observe any laser emission from feathers that were only stained once, just in sample feathers that underwent multiple wetting and complete drying cycles.
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The authors were unable to identify the precise microstructures responsible for the lasing; it does not appear to be due to the keratin-coated melatonin rods. Co-author Nathan Dawson of Florida Polytechnic University suggested to Science [science.org] that protein granules or similar small structures inside the feathers might function as a laser cavity. He and his colleague think that one day, their work could lead to the development of biocompatible lasers that could safely be embedded in the human body for sensing, imaging, and therapeutic purposes.

Original Submission