Concave Lenses

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
Where are concave lenses naturally found?
- Marvin (age 12)
Dunraven, London
A:
Marvin,
Surprisingly, they don’t seem to be found a lot in nature, so far as I can tell. Lenses are abundant in nature, convex lenses that is. Convex lenses are in all eyes, helping creatures to focus images and see. Another interesting place convex lenses are found is on the body of a sea creature called a brittlestar. This creature has a network of convex lenses on its surface to help it focus light and detect the shadows of approaching predators. However, when I looked to find where concave lenses were found, I really didn’t find much, except your lens in your eye changes from convex to slightly concave to focus some images better. Concave lenses are very much man-made, found in cameras, eyeglasses, and binoculars, but are not found in many places in nature. But, lenses are being discovered in lots of new places everyday, so they might be found somewhere soon.
Thanks for your question!
-Kim-

(published on 10/22/2007)