Who is the whiter in the world?

With the approach of winter, we are all - young and old - waiting for the snow. What a wonderful phenomenon! Snowflakes whirl, fly, covering everything with a white shroud. But there is a reasonable question - so who is the whiter in the world? For example, Japanese connoisseurs of beauty compare falling snow with plum flowers. And do not distinguish the whiteness of the petals from the whiteness of fresh snow. For example, Ono Takamura's poems say this:

But there is a reasonable question - so who is the whiter in the world?

Everything is white, everything! Does not distinguish the eye

Plum blossoms and cold snow.

Where is the snow? Where are the petals?

And only the fragrance

Tell people this plum or not.

But how to determine who will be whiter than everyone on the planet? Of course, you can point to the foam of sea waves, clouds in the sky, lilies or chamomiles, rabbits or polar bears, the already mentioned snow and milk. Nature abundantly spills a white color on the inhabitants of the planet and the phenomena on it. Even the whole continent can be called White-Antarctica. All this beauty seems to say, as the heroine of the famous fairy tale - "I am in the world all the nicer, the more beautiful and whiter!". But this, of course, is the emotional perception of white in nature. The scientific approach is based on accurate measurement and comparison.

Physics says about this unequivocally - all whiter in the world is that thing or organism that reflects most of the world. In addition, white color has many shades, which are actively used in printing. And how is it in nature - alive and lifeless?

Fresh snow reflects almost 90% of sunlight, so it attracts us so much with its whiteness

As it turned out, the champion in the inanimate nature turned out to be the snow we mentioned already. Fresh snow reflects almost 90% of sunlight, so it attracts us so much with its whiteness. But in living nature this issue was solved relatively recently. A group of scientists from the University of Exeter still determined who in the world is whiter. The methods of optical microscopy, laser analysis, and spectrometry were used to determine. After much searching, it was established that the smallest beetle Cyphochilus found in Southeast Asia is the most white creature on our planet.

The beetle's shell strikes with its whiteness. And it's not about the presence of pigment. It turned out that the secret lies in the size of the strands that make up the flakes of the shell, and also in the distance between the threads. These factors provide a unique scattering ability. To achieve such whiteness, a double layer of those coatings is required, which are used in the production of high-quality paper, plastic and some paints.

Cyphochilus lives on white fungi and against their background is not noticeable for predators. Scientists believe that the beetle has a lot to learn. His secret can tell people about the recipes of ultra-white artificial materials. If it is possible to introduce the principle of the device of flakes of this beetle into production, it will be possible to significantly improve the whiteness of the paper, the color of the teeth and even the brightness of the illumination.

Therefore, if you are asked who is whiter in the world, you can safely answer - "How is someone? The Cyphochilus Beetle!"

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