Blog Post Image: In the eye of a chicken, a new state of matter comes into view

Unlike chickens, visual cells are evenly distributed in an obvious pattern in many creatures’ eyes. The Washington University researchers thought the unusual arrangement in chickens (left) had to do with how the cones are packed into their small, thin retina. The Princeton researchers developed a computer-simulation model that mimicked the final arrangement of chicken cones (right). The colored dots represent the centers of the chicken’s eye cells. They are enlarged and colored for visualization purposes. (Image courtesy of Salvatore Torquato, Princeton University)