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You are here: Home / With Butterfly Wings, There’s More Than Meets The Eye | Science Friday

With Butterfly Wings, There’s More Than Meets The Eye | Science Friday

Published on February 3, 2020
Infrared photographs of butterflies, where brightness correlates with the capability of radiative cooling. Credit: Nanfang Yu and Cheng-Chia Tsai/Columbia Engineering
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MBL Director Nipam Patel joined the Science Friday crew to talk about one of this favorite scientific topics—butterflies. 

Scientists are learning that butterfly wings are more than just a pretty adornment. Once thought to be made up of non-living cells, new research suggests that portions of a butterfly wing are actually alive—and serve a very useful purpose.

Infrared photographs of butterflies, where brightness correlates with the capability of radiative cooling. Credit: Nanfang Yu and Cheng-Chia Tsai/Columbia Engineering

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, Naomi Pierce, curator of Lepidoptera at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, found that nano-structures within the wing help regulate the wing’s temperature, an important function that keeps the thin membrane from overheating in the sun. They also discovered a “wing heart” that beats a few dozen times per minute to facilitate the directional flow of insect blood or hemolymph. Read more…

Posted in MBL in the News | Tagged butterflies, patel

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