Grilled Saint-Jacques shellfish is one of the indispensable dishes in the Christmas season in France.
However, not everyone knows this species possesses a sophisticated visual system that can have up to 200 eyes of 1mm size. This visual system functions as a type of telescope.
According to the Weizmann Institute of Science study in Israel recently published in the journal Science, Saint-Jacques shellfish as well as some species living deep in the seabed have a mirror system to create mirror images from the light. Bright and programmed to receive light waves that penetrate into the waters where they live.
Scallop Saint-Jacques.
These mirrors are made of extremely small numbers of complex 3-dimensional shapes that minimize light aberration and produce clear images.
These mirrors produce images on a double-layer retina from individual images that the shellfish sees in the scope of observation and marginality.
That structure helps Saint-Jacques oysters have a vision of about 250 degrees compared to the 180 degrees of the human eye.
Scientists also consider that the eyes of this oyster also have a concave sphere mirror to reflect light.
This is an interesting discovery because 'the mirror system is made up of many cubes in this multitude of soft-bodied eyes that are amazingly similar to the segmented mirrors in reflective telescopes " .
The findings of Israeli scientists are expected to pave the way for the creation of new optical instruments, as well as new applications for image processing or sensors.
