Little Fluttering Engineering marvels - Butterflies!

Image source

I really do love butterflies. They fascinate me so much! They’re so fragile and so beautiful. What you’d find out in this post about these painted beauties will amaze you.

“Butterfly wings may rank among the most delicate structures in nature, but they have given researchers powerful inspiration for new technology that doubles the production of hydrogen gas—a green fuel of the future—from water and sunlight.” – Science Daily

The Navigational System of the Butterfly

A butterfly has a brain that is about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen but it (the monarch butterfly) is able to find its way from Canada to a small patch of forest in Mexico which is about 1,800 miles (3,000 km).

How does it manage to find its way despite the size of its brain??

It uses two things – the sun’s position and the internal body clock (Circadian clock).

Monarchs use their compound eyes to keep track of the sun's position in the sky. They combine this information with their internal body clocks, which is based on the rhythmic expression of genes that maintain a daily pattern of physiological processes and behavior, all centered in their antennae.
To figure this out, researchers had to measure the activity of the insect's brain cells while monitoring the rates at which cells in their antennae and eyes fired.

They have their own compass!

Just like humans rely on compass for direction, butterflies rely on an even better compass – a solar compass.
Monarch butterflies have a solar compass that is fixed to the position of the sun as well as the remarkably accurate circadian clock—a biological function based on the 24-hour day—to make corrections for the sun’s movement.

A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria.
circadian rhythms are endogenously generated, although they can be modulated by external cues such as sunlight and temperature.
Circadian rhythms are important in determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including human beings – source

Learning more about the butterfly’s inner timepiece can give scientists further insight into the circadian clocks of humans and animals. Further study can also lead to new therapies for neurological afflictions such as epilepsy, Alzheimer disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuroinfections, brain tumours, cerebral palsy, etc.
“If you want to understand how the brain incorporates information about time and space,” says Dr Reppert, “ then the monarch butterfly is a marvelous example.”

The Light Absorbing Feature Of The Butterfly Wing

Scientists have been working to improve the amount/quality of light from already existing solar collectors in an attempt to reduce mankind’s dependence on the energy gotten from fossil fuels.
A solution to this particular problem has been fluttering right before our very eyes for ages!

Everyone needs to keep warm once in a while, including butterflies. It is important to mention that this light absorbing ability, is how they keep warm.
Butterflies spread out their wings in the sun in order to keep themselves warm when the weather is cold. The wings of some species of are super-efficient at trapping and absorbing sunlight.
What’s the secret?

Butterflies and moth belong to the order Lepidoptera. Lepidos is Greek for "scales" and ptera means "wing". These scaled wings are different from the wings of any other insects.
Scales on the butterfly’s wing have honeycomb-like holes.

The secret lies in the structure of microscopic, overlapping scales covering their wings like a sort of coating and in their dark pigmented color.
It’s like they got their own coat to keep warm, just not made of fur.

Image source

If you've ever handled a butterfly, you probably noticed the powdery residue left behind on your fingers. The powder you see on your fingers are some of the scales that covers the wings.
These scales(coats) contain rows and rows of holes that look like a honeycomb which is separated by inverse V-shaped ridges that channel light into the holes.
Amazing right?

This intriguing structure traps incoming sunlight, making the wings extremely black which makes the butterfly feel warm.
Other possible duplications of this ingenuous structure of the butterfly wing in technology are in optical instruments and solar cells.

The Water and Dirt Resistance Wings of The Butterfly

However fragile the butterfly wing may be, the butterfly flies elegantly not minding dust and drops of moisture which could make flying difficult.
How do the butterfly wings stay so clean?

The Giant Blue Morpho butterfly (Morpho didius) was used as a case study by researchers in the Ohio State University.
Researchers found that although the insect’s wings look smooth to the naked eye, the surfaces are covered with very minute overlapping scales that look like tiles on a roof.

As a result, tinier parallel grooves on the surface of these scales cause dirt or drops of water to roll off with ease. Interesting!
Imagine that you didn’t have to bath because you never get dirty because whatever dirt or drop of water that touches your skin just rolls off!

Engineers are seeking to copy the wings’ texture in order to make high-tech coatings for industry and medical equipment that are resistant to dirt and water.
It gets juicier right?

The striking colors of the Butterfly’s Wing

I couldn't have guessed that an adaptation of the butterfly's wing could be used to enhance bank notes and credit cards so that they would be harder to forge!
Researchers took 10 long years to produce a simplified replication of the butterfly’s wing surface, which they hoped they could use to do just that!
Obviously, duplicating the surface of a butterfly’s wing is pretty challenging.

“Despite the detailed scientific understanding of optics,” writes Professor Ullrich Steiner of Cambridge University’s Nanoscience Centre, “the astonishingly varied colour palette found in nature often surpasses the optical effects that can be generated by technological means.”
What exactly did they see?

The striking metallic colors on the wings of some butterflies change depending on the angle you look at them.
This effect is called iridescence. Light bounces around inside these materials in a tricky way

Rows of tiny concave surfaces on the wings of a green swallowtail butterfly (Papilio blumei) reflect light in various ways. For example, the center of each concavity reflects yellow-green light, while the edges reflect blue light.

Also, light at the center of a concave surface is reflected directly, but light striking the sides first bounces through a surface of multiple layers, which amplifies and partially polarizes, or rotates, the light waves.
This results in a final mix which is called structural color because of the complex way it is produced. That is why the wing color of one species is so sharp and intense that it can be seen from 805 metres away.

As a quick summary, The intriguing abilities of the butterfly have given scientists better ideas on

• How the brain combines information about time and space
• How to improve the efficiency of solar energy collectors
• How to make high-tech coatings for industry and medical equipment that are resistant to dirt and water
• How to enhance bank notes and credit cards so that they would be harder to forge.
  It’s really Amazing!

References1 2, 3, 4

All Images are from unsplash.com