One little butterfly

I was in a conference and somebody was presenting about butterflies and their nanostructures, and I was intrigued," says Radwanul Siddique, lead author of a recent paper published in the journal Science Advances. Siddique's paper uses these butterfly nanostructures as inspiration for a new type of solar cell design that can absorb more sunlight than traditional solar panels.

"A lot of insects have structural colors, where their colors come from nanostructures," says Siddique. For instance, the bright blues and greens of many Morpho butterflies are caused by tiny tree-like shapes in the wings, less than a millimeter across. These nanostructures absorb and reflect different colors of light at different angles, so the butterfly appears to 'shimmer' and change colors in the air.

The common rose butterfly has a similar trick. Its velvety black wings get their color from tiny microscopic holes that trap and absorb light, giv
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