Nanotechnology recreates colour of butterfly wings
Bank notes could one day be made as beautiful as butterfly wings using technology borrowed from nature.
British scientists have found a way to mimic the vivid iridescent colours of tropical butterflies, created by light bouncing off microscopic wing structures.
One application of the research could be the creation of hard-to-forge and visually striking bank notes and credit cards.
"These artificial structures could be used to encrypt information in optical signatures on bank notes or other valuable items to protect them against forgery," said Cambridge University PhD student Mathias Kolle.
"We still need to refine our system, but in future we could see structures based on butterflies' wings shining from a ã10 note or even our passports."
The Cambridge team studied the Indonesian peacock, or swallowtail, butterfly - Papilio blumei - whose eye-catching green and blue wings generate intense colours.
The insect's wing scales produce an intricate surface pattern resembling the inside of an egg carton.
Mr Kolle and two professors from the university's Cavendish Laboratory made identical copies of the structures using advanced nanotechnology.
Recreating the colours of beetles, butterflies and moths has previously proved elusive because of the technical challenge of precisely shaping materials on such a small scale.
Weird Science Factoid: The word comet comers from the Greek word kometes - meaning long hair.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
Its a great post Daniel. Thanks for sharing this news. This looks very interesting. Lets see what happens.
I am pleased to see how fast technology evolves. It is a good sign for our civilization,that means progress and innovation. This discovery makes us to be more confidence in bank security, knowing that our money is protected by the best innovations.