How butterfly wings get their colors
JUN 15, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024418
New York Times : It’s long been appreciated that the vivid colors of butterfly wings arise not from pigments, which selectively absorb certain frequencies, but from intrinsic microstructures, which selectively refract certain frequencies. Now, Yale University’s Richard Prum and his collaborators have figured out how those microstructures grow as the butterfly develops inside its chrysalis.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
