Now You See It, Now You Don’t!

Psalm 104:24
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”

What tiny shrimp-like creature is a bright iridescent blue one moment and then – in the blink of an eye – invisible the next? It’s the Sapphirina copepod, also known as the “sea sapphire.” Though the sea sapphire is only about a tenth of an inch long, it is surely one of the most amazing creatures in God’s creation.

Sapphirina As an article at the Deep Sea News website points out, “The secret to the sea sapphire’s shine is in microscopic layers of crystal plates inside their cells. In the case of blue sea sapphires, these crystal layers are separated by only about four ten-thousandths of a millimeter, about the same distance as the wavelength of blue light.”

Now here’s where the creature’s vanishing act comes into play. “When blue light bounces off these crystal layers, it is perfectly preserved and reflected. But for other colors of light, these small differences in distance interfere, causing the colors to cancel out.”

And what happens when they cancel out? The creature vanishes! You really need to see this. If you go to the Creation Moments website and search on the term “sea sapphire,” you can then copy a link in the footnotes and paste it into your web browser to see a video of the sea sapphire in action.

The sea sapphire’s vanishing act surpasses what even the most accomplished illusionists can do. Its unique abilities clearly point to a Creator who never ceases to amaze and delight us with His magnificent creatures!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, only You could have given Your creatures so many amazing characteristics. It’s silly to think for one moment that these marvelous creatures are the product of evolution. Amen.

Author: Steven J. Schwartz
Ref: R.R. Helm, “The Most Beautiful Animal You’ve Never Seen,” Deep Sea News. Photo: Sapphirina. Courtesy of http://drista.ti-da.net. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26kus22RaTo