The science of the theory. Small. Some ingenious inventors are inspiring materials width of wonders, properties sensitive to Climate Change. They can act as a sentinel for our interaction with the plan. Brilliant color, without pain, where you see what we see here is a close eskoville. We see that the blue comes from the background is good, only see protection from hazardous chemicals and bacteria. The word contaminated on the glove will turn from blue to red. When you touch a surface that is contaminated, even in the on single metal, as our ocean level continue to go up in the future, a lot of cd will have to be fueled on top of the ocean. All things to the millions of years of evolution, packed into the remarkable world of butterflies, n mom. Many problems that humans have themselves, the butterflies and mos already have the best discover how butterflies could help us make our world better. The their dazzling colors and patterns are among the most amazing and the animal kingdom. Some estimates put to numbers, species around a 160000. 00, and they drive in nearly every nook and cranny of our planet. The variety and beauty are testimony to the power of evolution. As though there are countless hidden features, some visible only with the most powerful micros. Today, scientists around the world are studying these natural treasures. Discovering secrets that can be adapted and applied to make our world more sustainable are so beautiful that we can learn a lot by studying them. As champions of evolution, theyve been added for tens of millions of butterflies and merge around the same time miss flowering plants. Throughout their long history, they have diversified and developed amazing adaptations like powerful toys and silk thread. Stationary flight transparent material temperature regulation astonishing colors and patterns and defenses against bacterial infection. They have so much to teach us. But today, many species are in danger of extinction. Threatened by a warming world. The butterflies are giving scientist a window into our changing climate. But thats only the beginning of what studies of these remarkable creatures, everything particularly about the structure of the materials at the nano scopic scale. Researchers have been inspired by incredible nana scopic structures in the wings and bodies of butterflies. Enabling the creation of Innovative Technologies that may 1 day save lives and even health combat Climate Change. Butterflies and must have many aspects of the morphology of their physiology that we could use for bio inspire design for sure. I mean theres many things, many problems that humans having solved the butterflies and mos already have me. The use of butterfly and most features dates back at base 5000 years when a space she is known as bob next morning, was 1st domesticated in china for its ability to produce a phenomenally resilient and versatile material. So the, because of the importance of self to the chinese imperial court, the means of producing it was a heavily guarded secret. And its violators were punished even by desk. The today of course, the secret is out. The whole process starts with the hatching of a minuscule age and the birth of a caterpillar that measures less than an 8th of an inch. From its earliest days, the bomb bix caterpillar devours an enormous quantity of mulberry leaves. Plant matter that it will eventually convert into cell thread the after about a month of feeding the bomb backs caterpillar will find a branch to climb, where it will begin metamorphosis into its adult form. For the next few days, it will tirelessly repeat the same figure, 8 movement wells, to creating a viscous filament, the silk eventually spinning up to a mile of the thread into a protective cuckoo. The scientists have found that the thread is mainly comprised of just 2 proteins. The today, a whole new chapter is opening in the story of silk researchers at the tests. So collab in boston has isolated one of the proteins called fiber away and have created an innovative material. So we end up with a solution that is the suspension of the fibroid molecules in water. Once we have the solution, this is our magical starting material to do to do many, many things. To the scientists. Silk is an incredibly versatile, environmentally friendly material. What begins as a colorless liquid, this gel like solution can be either flexible insoluble or as tough as kev. Lar luciano de mony is exploring medical applications 5 row and has an advantage over Synthetic Materials like plastics because its compatible with the human body. Oh, so this is a very energetic next. Those are very nice. Yeah, but as soon as i stress them they are are breaking down. This is going to be nice for like a band aid type application or reconfigurable. Some of these are very, very, pretty good. And yeah, well get your makes the job together with the solution and then control the release of that drug in on a higher surface area. And distressing then of the attributes the functional as a result. So it has a big given value to some of the applications was so, because of the fact that cell can be implanted without an inflammatory response and the human body that it can, it can be eaten, it can be consumed in the lab. Theyre finding that the fiber o in material can be made to be rigid and tough, or flexible like a film, making it an ideal material as an implant in reconstructive surgery. If you take this material and you know, then you can mechanically shape it with the tools that you come a use in a mechanic shop. And what you can do is you can generate small screws, the screws made of fiber when theyre similar to the metal screws currently used to reconstruct bones. They can also deliver human growth factor compounds to help bones knit together. So this, these are the worlds that come together in the mechanical properties and the medical properties and a material that integrates with, with living tissue in liquid form the fiber when in silver, is also being combined with chemicals that react in the presence of bacteriological, viral threats the result is an inc, that can change color when exposed to dangerous substances in the environment. All of the things that are here on the tapestry, it react react to the environment, react to the environment around it. And so when you, when there is a change in the environment around it, they will change color accordingly. This fabric is of particular interest for making protective gear for workers operating where they might be exposed to dangerous substances. So these types of things are very interesting to turn objects into, into sensing objects that you print a word with these inks onto the surface of personal protection equipment. So id like and love to hear that more and will, will sense the environment around it. In this case, the word contaminated on the glove will turn from blue to red. When you touch a surface that is contaminated, the, the caterpillar that produces snow is only one stage and the butterflies unique life cycle, n o, it moves through 4 distinct phases. Egg, caterpillar, crystal is, are, and adults. The butterfly extracts itself from its crystal is dazed and fragile, unfolding its wings and its body with a claw like rustling. When it emerges from its chrysalis, the adult has been completely transformed into one of the most delicate and graceful creatures in nature. And of course, the vivid an iridescent colors and patterns of butterfly wings are the most striking feature. Nowhere seen more brilliantly than in the mail of the more from the species of the tropical rain forest. In flight its wings seemed to give off blue flashes that are hard to miss, even in the densest forest surge. Berty, a Research Physicist at the Paris Institute of nano sciences, talks about the wings. Unique properties such as best each state sees, presents a slightly different blue and has a slightly different wing beats on yes. And then variations of colors that we see here. A phenomenon of iridescence, where the color varies in slide to the hip on the cell. Its part of the code of communication between males and females, just from that. Its an impressive ad application to the problem of finding a mate in the forest, but it comes with a problem. What are so visible to the female butterfly is also noticeable to hungry birds. Reminder, yes. So you keep the male has to find a way to power use, is it that is being very visible . While now getting caught aside the 1st predator that comes along the in the, the genius of this butterfly. Like any of those just but to you is that it does not apply. Seems right. Youve ordered by the law as it flips through the forest, blinking blue. It follows an unpredictable exact path, making it hard to track a decline. So you have the dotted line to zig zagging like that, which makes it almost impossible for a bird to calculate its trajectory and snapped it up and flying foot the its the more photos, irridescent blue, the intrigue, steroids, and the other researches the most. They want to understand how nature produces a color that looks so unnatural. School what you see, what we see here is a close up in this way. Do we see that the blue that comes from the background scams you know these. Okay. And there are scales here, the clock, the joint, some top of the notes. These are covering scales and for the transparency you can see through them. The more full use is a very peculiar way to generate color. It is a structural color which is intrinsically different from a pigment color. This is in contrast to regular pigment pigment, or like manuals of pigment that are inside of the cells that give something a yellow or red or, or green color. The big me color results from the partial reflection of daylight when a pigment reflects a red color, for instance, it means it has absorbed all the other colors. But then this other type of color ration is actually not caused by pigment. The structures that produce the color of the more foe are visible under the microscope. The wing show a regular pattern of res surfaces. Each one just 110000000 of a meter in size. Its the size of these structures that produce the wings, iridescence. Its caused by little bumps or, or, um, glass of these they call them are little out deviations in the smoothness of the insect skin. And when light bounces off of that, our eyes perceive it as being a metallic or shiny or iridescent color. The blue of the morpho swing is not due to pigmentation, but its generated by the structure of the wing itself. When light strikes the wing at certain angles, its nano scale features select only the blue frequencies, which are reflected resulting in an iridescent metallic appearance. The Surprising New insight into structural color has inspired researchers to control light and produce color without chemicals or paint in all sorts of other materials. The at the institute of optics at the university of rochester in the united states. So im like, o has succeeded in creating such structures inspired by this murphy, the bottom fi. So we actually can also imprint some of this tiny mike code Metal Structures onto a material surface and gave them a very unique properties using an in for red laser with very short bursts of light, they are able to scope. Dana sized structures measured in billions, 7 meter into metals. This incredible met instead of creating various colors on surfaces, is not only allowed the researches to reproduce the color of the butterflys wings. It also enables them to create a highly light absorbing material that could be called absolute black extra. So that can be absorbed a certain range of car reflects all the colors filled. I gave you a certain color appearance. So we create this technology is called the black metal, actually will in distinguish the absorbed old colors of the, of the spectrum. Therefore it is pure peach block. These discoveries have the potential to revolutionize solar power. Sean lace team found that applying these nano structures to a solar panel improved its efficiency by a 130 percent. The nano structures allow the panel to absorb almost the entire light spectra and minimizing loss of energy due to reflection. Butterflies use a variety of defense mechanisms, ovo some boldly where of assigns of toxicity. Others prefer to pass unseen. They melt into the surrounding colors of their natural environment. For example, the gretta odo, also known as a glass wing butterfly, relies on a double defense displaying some warning colors. While most of the wing is almost totally transparent, a most unusual adaptation. The wing surfaces have scarcely any reflectivity, even glass and other human made materials reflect some light but not this butterfly wings, which makes it extremely interesting to scientists. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of technology in germany are studying the Unusual Properties of transparent type wing, like the grid. Oh those. And thats what you see on top of these nano structures here. Nano, nano pillars which have random hines. And also the distance between the nano pillows is a little bit random and, and so theyre not regularly arranged to an end is random is important for the anti Reflective Properties of the bottom slide. This is where the secret of the high transparency lies, the random distribution and size of these conical met. A metric pillars create an anti reflective layer, allowing light raise even the most grazing to pass through the wing without being dispersed or reflected. Until this anti Reflective Properties interesting be for different types of application by sympathetic like smartphone insurance on the new phone know in the summer when the sun is shining, its hard to read and it would be nice to have an anti reflective screen and also for solar cells, it will be interesting to have less reflection and have more collection of the solar images. These researchers create a plastics film on which they print nano structures, an invitation of those in the crystal and type wing. Their goal is to create anti reflective materials that are highly transparent. The nano structures of the wings offer other properties, such as the ability to repel water known as hydro pro bescedy, the staying dry as a matter of life and death for butterflies. Missed in rain would quickly ground them if they werent water proof that the only professor a butterfly might not get wessy seized the wings with waves and they touched each other, said they would stick together well to the end. The butterfly with dr. Deal with doing so a butterfly wing is super hydrophobic. So the deal that is the wing doesnt get what the water forms be, its a t and then the beads roll off cleaning the weighting of all of the dust and dirt on it. It picks up the longer wage, which comes up thanks to its nana metric structures, the more photos wing doesnt just rid itself of water drops. It breaks them down into a multitude of smaller drops that flow more easily off the surface. Or the end is rochester, lab drum like glow is exploring possible engineering applications for this extremely high just phobic material. In one of his experiments, he starts by laser edging a metallic surface with a nano scale pattern inspired by the martha wing. Hes hoping to create the same water repelling effect. The when he drops water on the surface he has created it is totally repelled. The experiment is this excess water drops are not only repelled, theyve bounced back. With this material. Gen ladies team seems to have created an unsinkable metal. And what we did was we actually utilize in, uh, build up metallic assembly width a super hydrophobic surface. So that the hydrophobic surface they are facing each other. And if you pull this a metallic, something inside the water, and because the inside of the assembly is super hydrophobic, so they will push the water out and will prevent the water squeeze into the metallic assembly and the air trap inside. Well keep the metallic a, somebody else flo, fabricating a ships whole. Using this design would have an obvious benefit, but cham late believes it could also help us adapt to Climate Change. And as our ocean level continue to go up in the future, a lot of see if you will have to be fueled on top of the ocean. And if we can deploy this a simple model for construct help the floating cd and the cd will never see the who could have imagined that one day a ship or even a whole city might rest on a butterflies wing. The not all butterfly wings are visually arrested. The nano structures in wings are not only involved in color, transparency or tricking predators. Some of them serve to provide direct metabolic benefits for survival. The like insects, butterflies and months are cold blooded. No butterfly can take off without a minimum of sudden light heated, spotty, dark winged butterflies absorb the heat of his son more readily and seemed to have an advantage over those with lighter colored wings. It might seem that a white wing butterfly, like a cabbage white butterfly, would be operating at a huge disadvantage. And yet in the early morning, even on cloudy days, it is one of the 1st arrivals to gather nectar and flower fields. How does it manage it . The at the Paris Institute of nano sciences, serge berty, a is interested in this phenomenon. Dont get that. So the why satisfies, cannot directly absorb a light through the wing. Most of it you have to because theyre wide and clean and reflect on the end. I dont know is that what they do when they need to warm up could is use the wings is concentrated before taking off. The ice is a place themselves facing the sun, then open and close the wings like the c. As its very reflective, it sends a lot of hide and concentrates the light on. Its back to the 4 eggs where the wings, abductive muscles are located. He does it. So when the wings concentrate, the light before x will absorb all this. And this is the reflective white coloration acts as a mirror to concentrate heat onto the animals body. In the tiniest details, there is virtually a can verify the way she is sent to the thorax on the printer. As with all scales, we see a network of stray sion escape, but whats particular to the cabbage wide butterfly is that theres a network of confounded stray agents in this direction as though and small compartments informed inside. The cabbage. White scales contain tightly packed ovoid shaped granules like eggs in a card. They reflect the suns rays, but not in all directions. They focus the light and eat like a magnifying glass. The butterfly then angles it swings in a way that sends the sheet down to its back. This is how the butterfly warms up in the just has to open and close its wings to regulate its temper, can feel it to. In fact, its the master of its own temperature. Finding new ways to concentrate some light is important for humans to in the search for cheap and efficient replacements for fossil fuels. In her lab at the university of exeter, katie shanks is adapting the cabbage whites reflective. Nana structures to solar panels working to increase their output