SEED ZIPPERS
The wings of morpho butter flies are vibrant,
bright, iridescent blue. But they don’t get their
shimmering colour from any pigments in
their scales, they get it from the shape of
the scales themselves! Butter flies need
colours to make them camouflaged, to
regulate their body temperatures,
and for communication.
These tiny scales on the
wings of the beautiful
morpho butter flies are
shaped and arranged
so that they reflect
and scatter
light inBUTTERFLY COLOURS
such a way that their wings
appear to be blue.
This means that the butter fly can
use more of its energy for flying
and other things, rather than on
making coloured pigment.
Scientists are now looking
at these tiny scales, and using
them to make dyes that are
less toxic than the ones
we now produce, and for
screens for electronic
devices like
tablets and
smar t phones.The most common
“biomimetic” technology is one
you probably use all the time!
Velcro was invented in 1948 by
a man called George de Mestral,
who noticed all the burrs sticking
to his clothes after coming back from a
walk with his dog. Burrs are plant seeds that
are covered in hundreds of tiny hooks. These
hooks enable the seeds to cling to animal fur,
meaning that they can be dispersed over a large
area, which helps the plant spread and helps its
population grow. George de Mestral copied the
burrs’ tiny hooks using nylon, creating the famous
“zipperless zipper”, or Velcro.
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03/2015