Biomimicry

"The little Cyphochilus beetle from Thailand is strikingly white – whiter by far than is common in nature. Researchers from the UK and Italy have now discovered how the very structure of its shell allows the beetle to be both ultra-white and ultra-light."

Industry and consumer awareness of biomimetics is on the rise as demand for naturals continues to climb, with the combination of science and nature increasingly appealing for skin care products. 

"Just as a chameleon can instantly morph its skin color to match its surroundings, a new method of controlling crystals using light and chemistry could make clothing or cars change color on demand. The method involves shining a laser on tiny latex particles to make them assume a 3-D crystalline shape or pattern, such as a letter M. When the laser is switched on or off, the crystals appear or disappear."

"New research conducted by marine biologists reveals that the mantis shrimp Haptosquilla trispinosa uses a unique color vision system. [...] «Modern cameras struggle with the amount of data they take in due to increased pixel numbers. Maybe there is a more efficient way and the bio-inspiration provided by the shrimp could be the answer», Ms Thoen [lead author of study] concluded."

"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 of color even among closely related species. The discovery, reported today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optical Materials Express, could lead to new coatings for manufactured materials that could change color by design, if researchers can figure out how to replicate the wings' light-manipulating properties."

"A Canadian company is fighting counterfeiters by employing one of the most sophisticated structures in nature: a butterfly wing. To be precise, Nanotech Security Corp. in Vancouver is using the natural structure of the wings of a Morpho butterfly, a South American insect famous for its bright, iridescent blue or green wings, to create a visual image that would be practically impossible to counterfeit. The technology was developed at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, and licensed to the company."

"Inspired by the way iridescent bird feathers play with light, scientists have created thin films of material in a wide range of pure colors — from red to green — with hues determined by physical structure rather than pigments.

Structural color arises from the interaction of light with materials that have patterns on a minute scale, which bend and reflect light to amplify some wavelengths and dampen others. Melanosomes, tiny packets of melanin found in the feathers, skin and fur of many animals, can produce structural color when packed into solid layers, as they are in the feathers of some birds. 

“We synthesized and assembled nanoparticles of a synthetic version of melanin to mimic the natural structures found in bird feathers,” said Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. “We want to understand how nature uses materials like this, then to develop function that goes beyond what is possible in nature."

"..an MIT/Harvard study suggests that a specific type of limpet's shell may hold the key to transparent displays that require no internal light source. The mollusk in question is the blue-rayed limpet which, as its name implies, has bright blue stripes on its translucent shell. It is believed that these are used to make potential predators mistake it for a poisonous snail, which also has blue markings. The iridescent lines appear blue due to the fact that the shell material in those areas reflects the blue spectrum of incoming light, while absorbing other colors so that they don't drown out the blue."

"Based on the camouflage abilities of octopuses and cuttlefish, engineers in the US have built a flexible material that changes colour to match its surroundings. The new design features a grid of 1mm cells, containing a temperature-driven dye that switches colour on demand."

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"Beating its tiny wings up to 80 times a second a hummingbird will dart from flower to flower, its iridescent plumage dazzling in the tropical sun. But these busy birds are con artists. Their feathers are pigment-free, the colours the product of microscopic structures that refract sunlight like a prism, spraying out its reds, blues and greens."

"The TED2014 conference kicks off today in Vancouver, marking the 30th anniversary of the event. The theme of this year's conference is "the next chapter," and each attendee will receive a sample of what could be the next chapter in anti-counterfeit technology. The TED2014 ID badges feature a small iridescent panel with a "30 years TED" logo. The image isn't a hologram, but is created by billions of nano-scale holes. The technology is inspired by the wings of the Morpho butterfly, and this is one of its first major real-world applications. The super-tiny holes reflect and transmit light in a distinctive way, making the logo easy to identify and hard to copy."

"The Mirasol display technology (developed by Qualcomm) is based on biomimetics - that is, technology that imitates nature. The natural phenomenon that makes a butterfly’s wings or a peacock’s feathers shimmer and give off their rich, striking colors is the same exact quality that drives how Mirasol displays generate color. How do butterflies and peacocks do it? Through microscopic structures on their wings and feathers they are each able to create truly vivid colors simply by causing light to interfere with itself. This "interference" is the reason the term "interferometric" comes into play."

"The gloriously colored, iridescent feathers of the male peacock aren't what they seem on the surface. They look that way largely because the feathers contain nanometer-scale protein structures that break up incoming light waves, recombine and reflect them as rich, vibrant colors. Scientists at the University of Michigan think they have a technology that emulates this process to display pictures without chemicals or electrical power. Eventually, the technology could replace the displays now used on smartphones, tablets, and computer screens, with strikingly high definition."