Scientists have discovered that opaque materials such as human teeth, daisy petals, eggshells and white paint can focus light sharply and probably can be turned into cheap lenses.
The discovery was made by researchers at Twente University in the Netherlands, New Scientist reported Tuesday.
"A layer of paint, an eggshell or a tooth may match the resolution of the most perfect microscope," Allard Mosk, who led the research, was quoted as saying.
The materials the researchers chose are not normally transparent, but some light waves do pass through them, after being scattered in random directions and bouncing around inside the material.
In their study, the researchers used a daisy petal, a 0.4-millimeter-thick piece of eggshell, a layer of paint and a 1.5-millimeter-thick human tooth.
The discovery might lead to cheap lenses that replace the expensive ones used in today's optical microscopes, the report said.
Source: Xinhua
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