Giant Blue Morpho, Micro-texture (IMAGE)

Ohio State University

Giant Blue Morpho, Micro-texture

Caption

This is one of a series of images that shows the texture on the surface of a butterfly wing. Engineers studied the texture to devise dirt- and water-resistant coatings for devices such as pipes and medical equipment. An electron microscope revealed micrometer-scale features that resemble shingles on a roof, and an even finer nanometer-scale features: parallel grooves on the surface of the shingles.

Credit

Photos by Jo McCulty, electron microscope images by Bharat Bhushan and Gregory Bixler. All courtesy of Ohio State University.

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