Education:Science Projects: The Million Dollar Challenge
Your project,
should you choose to accept it, is to find a blue
feather. Now, there are a couple of rules:
1) You may not take a feather off a living animal. It has to have fallen off naturally.
2) You may not dye or color the feather in any way. (No quick trips to the hairdresser for hair coloring!)
3) You need to be able to see the blue when you hold it up to a light and look at it from below.
Guess what!
You will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be able to find a blue feather! They don't exist! It is an optical illusion. It looks blue to us from the way the feather refracts the light, but it is really gray or black. So, if you find a naturally blue feather, you will be very rich. It will be the only one in the universe, and the Smithsonian would undoubtedly want to buy it from you for a lot of money. Perhaps a million bucks—or perhaps not.
Other examples
Polar bears look white, but their fur is actually clear. No, that doesn't mean they are invisible. The fur looks white to us, but in reality, it is hollow and clear. This, combined with their dark skin underneath, helps the polar bear to absorb the heat from the sunlight, and keeps the bear nice and toasty in its cold habitat.
Catch Dr. Zoolittle in an entertaining show in the San Diego Zoo's Children's Zoo daily during the summer and every weekend and school holiday.
