Enlarge / Materials in a butterfly's wing create color by altering the paths taken by some wavelengths of light. This was the inspiration for a new form of paint. (credit: Getty Images )

Do you know more than 50 percent of microplastic pollution in our oceans comes from color paints? Almost every object that people throw into the ocean, whether it be a broken toy, a small bottle cap, or a shoe, has some sort of color coating. While you might try to collect all the plastic objects that are thrown into the oceans, there is no way to gather the microplastics that have already mixed into the water.

Particles derived from paint aren’t only a problem in the ocean; they also mix into the air that you breathe. In 2010, scientists studied the effect of chemicals that are used in commercial wall paint on children’s health. They found that kids who sleep in rooms with walls coated with paint having high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are more likely to develop medical conditions like eczema and asthma.

So does that mean commercial paint materials will continue to degrade our environment and our health? Well, there is a new ray of hope. Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) recently published a study that describes “plasmonic paint,” a lightweight, eco-friendly material that has the potential to replace most colored coatings. They claim that their plasmonic paint is also the lightest paint in the world because it avoids the use of pigments and all the materials needed to hold the pigments in place.

Enlarge (credit: Kriswanto Ginting)

Light-sensing proteins are found throughout all domains of life. Even single-celled microbes carry proteins that respond to light. And animals have light-sensitive organs in a huge range of shapes and architectures. All of these seem to operate along the same principles: Photons are absorbed by a protein that responds by allowing ions to flow across a membrane. In single cells, this sets off a regional difference in ion concentrations, allowing them to respond. In more complicated organisms, these ions flow into nerve cells, causing them to signal.

But scientists are describing a weird exception this week: the centipede. These organisms clearly respond to light, as anyone trying to stomp one before it rushes back under a rock or wall will know. Yet many species don't seem to have eyes (and many that have eye-like structures don't sense light with them). And studies of their genome indicate they don't have any of the normal light-sensitive proteins. So how do these arthropods do it?

See the heat

To be clear, many centipede species have things that look like eyes and contain some cells that respond to light. But studies of those organs indicate they have no major impact on the response of the animal to light. And then there's the lack of genes. Light-triggered proteins tend to have similar structures, in part because they have to form channels through the membranes that allow ions to pass through it. So, it's usually relatively easy to pick out genes for these proteins when genome sequences become available.

Together! Which way should they go?? Rat’s story continues in Part 9

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