Meeting Abstract

BART.1  Friday, Jan. 4  Bartholomew Lecture: Animal photonics: an integrated, comparative view Sweeney, A.; University of Pennsylvania alisonsw@physics.upenn.edu

One of the fundamental physical forces shaping life on earth is light from the sun. My work so far has sought to elucidate the photonic sophistication of evolved structures in animals, and I have tried to not only describe novel light-resonant structures but also to place those structures in an environmental, behavioral context to better understand the nuances of their structural/optical function. I will discuss the evolution of the graded index lenses required for cephalopod vision, the photonic structures underlying deep-sea squid camouflage, and the optical structure of photosymbiosis in giant clams and demonstrate how keeping the animals in their environmental context shows the way to understanding these systems.