What is Structural color?
[[File:Peacock feathers closeup.jpg|thumb|250px| The brilliant iridescent colours of the male Peacock's tail feathers are created by structural coloration, as first noted by [[Isaac Newton]] and [[Robert Hooke]].]] '''Structural coloration''' is a [[color]]ing that results from the special structure of the [[surface]]. Sometimes structural coloration is combined with [[pigment]]s: for example, [[peacock]] tail [[feather]]s are pigmented brown, but their structure makes them appear blue, turquoise, and green, and often they appear [[iridescence|iridescent]].<ref name=HookeOnPeacockIridescence>Hooke, Robert. Micrographia. Chapter 36 ('Observ. XXXVI. ''Of Peacoks, Ducks, and Other Feathers of Changeable Colours''.')</ref><ref name=Ball>{{cite journal | title=Nature's Color Tricks| url=https://archive.org/details/sim_scientific-american_2012-05_306_5/page/74| date=May 2012 | author=Ball, Philip |volume=306 | pages=74–79 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0512-74 | journal=Scientific American | issue=5 | pmid=22550931| bibcode=2012SciAm.306e..74B }}</ref> English [[scientist|scientists]] Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton were the first who observed structural coloration. [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] described its principle a century later and called it [[wave interference]]. Young described iridescence as the result of [[interference]] between [[reflection|reflections]] from several surfaces of [[thin films]], combined with [[refraction]] as light enters and leaves such films. The [[geometry]] then determines that at certain angles, the light reflected from both surfaces adds (interferes constructively), while at other angles, the light subtracts. As a result, different colors appear at different angles. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Biology]] [[Category:Color]] [[Category:Light]]