The Darkest Dark

Key takeaways

Listeners participated in an exciting competition to name a quasimoon, showcasing community engagement with science.
Experiencing darkness at sea can profoundly impact perceptions of our surroundings and evoke deep existential feelings.
Deep-sea creatures have evolved unique adaptations for life in complete darkness, emphasizing natural selection's role.
Understanding ultra-blackness in species like anglerfish reveals complex evolutionary solutions to survival in a predatory context.
The relationship between structural design and color perception challenges traditional ideas about visibility and camouflage.
Research insights on how to create ultra-black materials can inform future innovations across various scientific and technological fields.

Summary

Introducing the Quasimoons Competition

Soren, the executive editor of ReadyLab, shares exciting news about a competition that allowed listeners to name one of Earth’s quasimoons. The podcast encourages participation and highlights the uniqueness of collectively naming a celestial body for the first time.

Experiencing Darkness at Sea

Molly Webster introduces us to Sänke Johnsen, a biologist who recounts his profound experiences at sea, particularly the overwhelming darkness and its striking presence. This setting creates a foundation for exploring the natural world’s relationship with light and darkness.

The Strange Life of Deep Sea Creatures

The podcast dives into the secrets of deep sea life, focusing on creatures that thrive in absolute darkness. Sänke describes capturing these bizarre beings, revealing how 80-90% can create their own light, thus engaging in a unique evolutionary battle for survival.

Understanding Ultra Blackness

A fascinating exploration of the adaptations that allow certain species, like dragonfish and anglerfish, to become incredibly dark in color. The discussion highlights biological mechanisms that help creatures survive in a predator-rich environment, revealing the extreme pressures they face.

The Science of Color and Structure

The episode takes listeners on a journey into the physics behind color perception, discussing how structural traits rather than simply pigmentation contribute to ultra-blackness in nature. This includes an exploration of butterfly wings and their microscopic structures that absorb light.

Innovations in Light Absorption

The research by Johnsen and his team gives insights that extend beyond biology into engineering realms. Their findings indicate possibilities for developing new materials that employ similar principles to create the darkest surfaces, applicable in various technologies.

Show notes

We fall down the looking glass with Sönke Johnsen, a biologist who finds himself staring at one of the darkest things on the planet. So dark, it’s almost like he’s holding a blackhole in his hands. On his quest to understand how something could possibly be that black, we enter worlds of towering microscopic forests, where gold becomes black, the deep sea meets the moon, and places that are empty suddenly become full.

Corrections/Clarifications:
In this episode, dragonfish are described as having teeth that slide back into their skull; that is the fangtooth fish, not the dragonfish. Though both can be ultra-black.

The fishes described are the darkest things on the planet, but there are some other animals that are equally as dark, including butterflies, wasps, and birds.

Vantablack is no longer the blackest man-made material

EPISODE CREDITS:

Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Rebecca Laks, Pat Walters, Molly Webster
with help from - Becca Bressler
Original music from - Vetle Nærø
with mixing help from -Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Natalie A. Middleton
and Edited by - Pat Walters
Guest - Sönke Johnsen

EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
Sönke Johnsen’s research paper on ultra-black in the wings of butterflies

A paper by Sönke Johnsen that describes how structure can change color, by showing how clear quartz balls can — when in a random pile — go from clear, to very blue, to white, depending on the size of the individual balls.

Music -
This episode kicked-off with some music by Norwegian pianist Vetle Nærø, check him out online

Videos -
Vantablack, a video about the look and design of the world’s OG darkest man-made substance (get ready to be wowed), and a new material saying it’s darker than Vanta.

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