How the butterfly got its bling

[miriam_e]

If you are in Sydney next Tuesday then you have the opportunity to attend a free talk on why butterfly wings are so beautiful. I soooo wish I could be there!

How The Butterfly Got its Bling

A free public lecture by Dr Pete Vukusic from the University of Exeter in the UK. He'll be talking about the minute structures on the wings of butterflies that give them such spectacular iridescent colours. It's at CSIRO Industrial Physics, Bradfield Road, West Lindfield, on Tuesday 1 February at 6pm. For details phone 9413 7000 or head to http://www.cip.csiro.au

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The spectacular iridescent colour of butterflies, such as the brilliant blue Ulysses butterflies of tropical Queensland, is not simply due to bright chemical pigments. Their extra bling comes from light bouncing off intricate structures on their wings.

Butterfly wings are covered in tiny overlapping scales, like tiles on a roof. If you've ever caught one, it's these scales that make your hands dusty. The upper surface of each scale is covered in miniscule structures so delicate they can't be seen with microscopes that use visible light.

"Using an electron microscope we can see that some butterflies have ultra-tiny structures that look like Christmas trees standing on their scales, others have completely different three dimensional lattice networks, and each type of structure gives the butterfly a very different appearance," said Dr Pete Vukusic from Exeter University in the UK, who's here giving a public lecture at CSIRO Industrial Physics in Lindfield..

The thing about iridescence is that it only works with very thin layers. And thin layers that do interesting things to light are worth a lot of money.

"Butterfly wings are the inspiration for a range of potential applications that vary from advanced optical properties of paints, fabrics and displays to specially shielded optical components in currency anti-counterfeiting measures and technological applications that require UV, visible, infra-red or microwave filters," Vukusic said.

What: How the butterfly got its bling (a free public lecture)
Who: Dr Pete Vukusic, School of Physics, University of Exeter.
When: 6pm Tuesday 1 February 2005
Where: CSIRO Industrial Physics, Bradfield Road, West Lindfield.

More information: 9413 7000 http://www.cip.csiro.au

Media interviews: Dr Scott Martin, CSIRO Industrial Physics
ph 9413 7746, 0407 460 138
Media images at:
http://www.cip.csiro.au/MediaEvents/media/ButterflyBling.htm

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I didn't realise "bling" was such a recent addition to English. I'd assumed it was a technical term to do with iridescence, but I was unable to find it in my dictionary. Wikipedia came to the rescue, defining it as (as you point out) hip hop slang meaning "expensive jewelry or other expensive material possessions, refers to the imaginary sound of glistening metal or other shiny surfaces". I wonder if a word can be called onomatopoeic if the sound it imitates is imaginary? I must admit I like the word.

Wish I could hear the talk. It is on this evening. [sigh] :(
I wonder how long till such events are routinely webcast... or held in VR spaces so anybody can attend.