Why haven insects grown larger and conquered the earth?
Gradient index optical building blocks are relatively new to man-made optical systems. The use of gradient index materials in eyes indicates extremely complex material reproduction and close control of the basic cellular building blocks. This produces an equivalent of precise curvature camera-type eyes. Difficult manufacturing requirements in eye cell reproduction meet challenges of very specific gradual material changes within each facet of complex insect eyes. Here, physical and design differences of eyes vary within most design categories. Even within some camera-type eyes in large animals, there are very precise larger-scale gradient index additions to larger eyes to help provide additional optical correction of already complex optics. The complexity of very small insect eyes, such as those of the small white fly, indicates a creative designer able to integrate complex cell structure with image processing and optical sensing in a very small package. As these small eye designs are m
A master designer must have worked out the delicate initial ecological balance. That is a distinct possibility in the overall survival of life. Creative ecological design must have gone into achieving balance without the apparent need for human control. Human control has often upset this balance, but we are still surviving with less quality of life. Small white flies with brains about the size of the period at the end of this sentence, have, of course, corresponding small eyes requiring considerable design. Some of these eyes make use of gradient index optical materials where the index of refraction varies according to a unique design that allows optical imaging without curved lenses. Many insect eyes are made up of a complex array of gradient index light pipes that act like lenses having a very specific design. Here it is possible to create images with less precise curvature control on the input and output curves than that required by multiple lenses on a single axis. Gradient index e
