Modification of specular reflexion and light transmission by biological surface structures

Abstract

Biophysicists, who, by definition, apply physical and mathematical principles to their analysis of biological problems for the understanding of the functions of living organisms, are to a great extent concerned with basic characteristics more or less common to all organisms. As pointed out by Griffin (1958) in his book on acoustic orientation, it may well be that ‘this fruitful preoccupation with the universals of protoplasm tends to foster an unduly restricted view of its many intricate potentialities’. The knowledge of the many ways in which animals and plants are adapted for a ‘successful life’ has had a great impact upon the concepts of evolution and natural selection. As a contribution to the proper understanding of these concepts the study of the biophysical principles, by which various geometrically oriented tissues serve different functions, becomes of special interest.