栖息于澳大利亚的鸟类是所有企鹅中最小的一种，其身高只有约30公分，它的羽毛因发生突变而泛着靓丽的淡蓝色，而它的常用名也由此而来：小蓝企鹅。
利用高能显微镜，研究人员如今发现，这些小蓝企鹅翅膀羽毛中的纳米级纤维为它们带来了不同寻常的蓝色。
与构成人类发丝的物质类似，这些纳米纤维由角蛋白组成，它们捆绑在一起，就像一束束未曾煮过的意大利细面条。
美国俄亥俄州阿克隆大学的生物学家Liliana D’Alba和同事在最近的《生物学快报》网络版上报告了这一研究成果。
小蓝企鹅的颜色源自太阳光中的蓝光照射到纳米纤维时对光线的散射，而此时所有其他波长的光线则都顺利地通过了羽毛。
研究人员指出，这是赋予羽毛以蓝色的一种新的机制。
生物学家之前在其他鸟类的蓝色羽毛中也曾发现过类似的纳米纤维，例如产于澳大利亚的鸸鹋，但后者的纤维是由胶原蛋白构成的。
如此华美的羽毛给小蓝企鹅带来了何种优势尚不得而知，但它们肯定与自己大多数穿着相同黑白“晚礼服”的亲戚们不太一样。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Biol. Lett. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.1163
Colour-producing β-keratin nanofibres in blue penguin (Eudyptula minor) feathers
Liliana D'Alba1, Vinodkumar Saranathan2,*?, Julia A. Clarke3, Jakob A. Vinther4, Richard O. Prum2 and Matthew D. Shawkey1,*?
The colours of living organisms are produced by the differential absorption of light by pigments (e.g. carotenoids, melanins) and/or by the physical interactions of light with biological nanostructures, referred to as structural colours. Only two fundamental morphologies of non-iridescent nanostructures are known in feathers, and recent work has proposed that they self-assemble by intracellular phase separation processes. Here, we report a new biophotonic nanostructure in the non-iridescent blue feather barbs of blue penguins (Eudyptula minor) composed of parallel β-keratin nanofibres organized into densely packed bundles. Synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering and two-dimensional Fourier analysis of electron micrographs of the barb nanostructure revealed short-range order in the organization of fibres at the appropriate size scale needed to produce the observed colour by coherent scattering. These two-dimensional quasi-ordered penguin nanostructures are convergent with similar arrays of parallel collagen fibres in avian and mammalian skin, but constitute a novel morphology for feathers. The identification of a new class of β-keratin nanostructures adds significantly to the known mechanisms of colour production in birds and suggests additional complexity in their self-assembly.
