We learn new things about science from all kinds of different places.
We discover something new by studying space every day, and we still have more than half of the ocean left to uncover. There are all sorts of mysteries just waiting to be looked into.
But sometimes, scientific discoveries are made in places that are seriously unexpected—like the eye of a chicken.
In February 2014 it was discovered that the cells in a chicken's eye were arranged in a never-before-seen way that might actually indicate a whole new state of matter!
This arrangement of cells, which researchers are calling "disordered hyperuniformity," is new in the current context, but a few other disordered hyperuniform materials have been discovered in the past decade. They've proven to have really unique characteristics in the way they capture and control light waves.
"We've since discovered that such physical systems are endowed with exotic physical properties and therefore have novel capabilities," said Salvatore Torquato, a chemistry professor from Princeton University.
Said Torquato: "The more we learn about these special disordered systems, the more we find that they really should be considered a new distinguishable state of matter."
