Destin over at SmarterEveryDay wanted to take an up-close look at the nanostructure of a butterfly’s wing, so he took a few samples to be looked at under a scanning electron microscope. The results are fascinatingly beautiful.
Destin and Dr. Robert Simmons at Georgia State University revealed the tiniest details of a butterfly’s wing using an LEO 1450VP scanning electron microscope that can view objects as small as 30 nanometers, smaller than most viruses. At full zoom, they found strikingly well-ordered, micrometer-sized structures that create the color of the butterfly’s wing. Crazy cool stuff. At nearly 10 minutes, it’s a longish video, but where else can you get such a close look at the biomechanics of a butterfly? [SmarterEveryDay]
