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Structural color and photonic crystals in nature: uses in research

Also: iridescence, Morpho butterfly, Pollia fruit

Colour made by nanostructures rather than pigments, as in butterfly wings and shiny blue berries.

Known properties: Structural color and photonic crystals in nature

Only what the cited papers report.

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Timeline

  1. 2003 Photonic structures in biology
  2. 2012 Pixelated blue Pollia fruit

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Photonic structures in biology

Vukusic and Sambles reviewed natural photonic structures, from Morpho butterfly scales to light-collecting brittlestar calcite and anti-reflective insect eyes.

Publisher update notice: erratum

As reported in: Vukusic, Sambles (2003). Photonic structures in biology. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature01941

Abstract only

biology

lab biology 2012

Pixelated blue Pollia fruit

Vignolini and colleagues found the Pollia condensata fruit's blue comes from helicoidally stacked cellulose layers, more intense than any previously described biological material.

As reported in: Vignolini, Rudall, Rowland et al. (2012). Pointillist structural color in Pollia fruit. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1210105109

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