Butterfly wings can do remarkable things with light, and humans are still trying to learn from them. Physicists have now uncovered how subtle differences in the tiny crystals of butterfly wings create stunningly varied patterns ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 17, 2013
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A synthetic material which mimics the brightest and most vivid colours in nature, and changes colour when twisted or stretched, has been developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, and could have important ...
Materials Science
May 29, 2013
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As the emerald ash borer ravages North American ash trees, threatening the trees' very survival, a team of entomologists and engineers may have found a way to prevent the spread of the pests.
Ecology
Feb 15, 2013
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With 3.5 billion years of research and development under her belt, Mother Nature could be considered the world's most experienced biological engineer. Sure, her methods may appear haphazard at times, but her track record ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 24, 2013
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The nighttime twinkling of fireflies has inspired scientists to modify a light-emitting diode (LED) so it is more than one and a half times as efficient as the original. Researchers from Belgium, France, and Canada studied ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 8, 2013
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A South American butterfly flapped its wings, and caused a flurry of nanotechnology research to happen in Ohio. Researchers here have taken a new look at butterfly wings and rice leaves, and learned things about their microscopic ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 7, 2012
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(Phys.org)—A team of Austrian researchers has found that Hebomoia glaucippe, known as the great orange tip butterfly, has a toxin in its wing tips that is identical to a toxin used by a predatory sea snail to kill prey. ...
(Phys.org)—The colors of a butterfly's wings are unusually bright and beautiful and are the result of an unusual trait; the way they reflect light is fundamentally different from how color works most of the time.
Nanomaterials
Oct 11, 2012
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Researchers at King's College London, in collaboration with European research institutes ICFO (Barcelona) and AMOLF (Amsterdam), have succeeded in mapping how light behaves in complex photonic materials inspired by nature, ...
Optics & Photonics
Aug 20, 2012
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For monarch butterflies, redder wings are correlated with better flight performance, according to research published July 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.
Plants & Animals
Jul 25, 2012
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