You can find our object of the week on the table in Huxley’s study. Do you think you know what it is? (Hint: Image not shown to scale)

Did you know what last week’s object of the week was?

Sea mouse (Aphrodita aculeata)

 

Our photo last week was a close-up of the spines, or setae, of our sea mouse (Aphrodita aculeata). It is a marine worm in the class Polychaeta (=many bristles).

Although the sea mouse is generally brown in colour, the spines are iridescent and reflect light back in a rainbow of colours.

Scientists are studying the sea mouse because their spines are better at reflecting light than man-made optical fibres. Nature thinks of everything first! 

Click here to read more about this research.

Side view of the sea mouse