1.   Among other things, photonic crystals raise the possibility that one day light could replace electricity as the currency of computers.

2.   And short hollow fibers based on photonic crystals could show up in optical networking components like switches, in high-powered industrial lasers and medical equipment.

3.   Because they require techniques like drilling nanometer-scale holes in silicon, photonic crystals can be extremely difficult to fabricate.

4.   Researchers at the University of Sydney, writing in the journal Nature, say these spines form a photonic crystal, the first ever found in a living organism.

5.   They deposited a glassy substance, arsenic triselenide, onto a polymer and then rolled it up, creating a layered structure claled a photonic crystal.