January 5

Biology

What ant-sized crustacean resembles a bright iridescent blue jewel but disappears in the blink of an eye? It is the sea sapphire, which lives in tropical and subtropical oceans around the world. This amazing creature can appear and disappear before our very eyes because of the cell structure on its back. A sea sapphire has microscopic layers of honeycomb-shaped crystal plates embedded in its skin cells. The crystal plates are all the same thickness, but the spacing between the stack of plates determines the wavelength of light (color) that is reflected back. The space between these plates is four ten-thousandths of a millimeter, about the same distance as a wavelength of blue light, so blue light is reflected back. If the angle of viewing changes to 45 degrees, the reflected light shifts from the visible light range to the invisible ultra-violet range, making it disappear before our very eyes. How intricate and precise! Our Creator loves to delight us with the smallest details - even beautiful, disappearing crustaceans aptly named sea sapphires.

And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone

~ Ezekiel 1:26

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett