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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(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with Swinburne University of Technology in Australia has found a way to use two-beam super-resolution lithography to create 3D photonic "gyroid" nanostructures—similar to those found in ...
The effect is known from the smart phone: Sun is reflected by the display and hardly anything can be seen. In contrast to this, the glasswing butterfly hardly reflects any light in spite of its transparent wings. As a result, ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 22, 2015
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A new study of the colorful "eyespots" on the wings of some butterfly species is helping to address fundamental questions about evolution that are conceptually similar to the quandary Aristotle wrestled with about 330 B.C. ...
Plants & Animals
May 28, 2014
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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. ...
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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(PhysOrg.com) -- Butterfly experts have suspected for more than 150 years that vision plays a key role in explaining wing color diversity. Now, for the first time, research led by UC Irvine biologists proves this theory true ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 16, 2010
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Since Charles Darwin, biologists have pondered the mystery of "mimicry butterflies", which survive by copying the wing patterns of other butterflies that taste horrible to their predators, birds.
Plants & Animals
Aug 12, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing colour and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin's day. Now, scientists at Cambridge have found 'hotspots' in the butterflies' ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 5, 2010
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Nanostructures and natural patterns have long fascinated researchers in bioinspired materials engineering. Biological samples can be imaged and observed at the nanoscale using sophisticated analytical tools in materials science, ...
