structural color
31. Optical metamaterials
Opsins allow the cephalopod skin to perceive incoming light across its skin. Some sort of signal processing occurs, and then the chromatophores and iridophores produce a colored pattern in response. Mimicking this complex system could have far rea...
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32. Trenches gather water: flying saucer trench beetle
"A third method involves uptake of free water directly from fog-moistened sand. The most elaborate procedure is used by the genus Lepidochora (Seely and Hamilton, 1976) (Fig. 3 c). These flat, circular, short-legged beetles construct a shallow tre...
33. Butterfly wing scale photonics
Until recently, mimicking the complex surfaces of beetles and butterflies has been technologically unfeasible. The structures responsible for producing intense color are precise to the nanoscale, with repeating patterns of cuticle and air space. T...
34. Butterfly wing scale photonics
Until recently, mimicking the complex surfaces of beetles and butterflies has been technologically unfeasible. The structures responsible for producing intense color are precise to the nanoscale, with repeating patterns of cuticle and air space. T...
35. Scales create brilliant white: Cyphochilus beetles
"We report the identification of whiteness resulting from a three-dimensional (3D) photonic solid in the scales of Cyphochilus spp. beetles. Their scales are characterized by their exceptional whiteness, their perceived brightness, and their optic...
36. Leaves resist bending: trees
"The main use of flat surfaces in nature consists of photosynthetic structures such as leaves. These also are well braced beneath; most leaves seem to circumvent problems of loads perpendicular to their surfaces simply by flexing or reorienting in...
37. Shell diffuses light: Hinea brasiliana
"We describe a unique mechanism of spatially amplifying a bioluminescent signal using a hard, calcified shell for diffusion. Indeed, we demonstrate that the shell of the snail acts as a unique diffuser that propagates the specific wavelength of th...
38. Footpads manage increasing body mass: mammals
"In most mammals, footpads are what first strike ground with each stride. Their mechanical properties therefore inevitably affect functioning of the legs; yet interspecific studies of the scaling of locomotor mechanics ha...
39. Air utilized as structural material: Portuguese man-of-war
"The floats of some large algae and of the Portuguese man-of-war (a colonial coelenterate) are perhaps the best natural analogs of balloons and blimps. Life is wet, and water provides the common working fluid of nature's internally pressurized sys...
40. Leaves given structural support: giant water-lily
"In still or slowly-moving waters there is one easy way to collect [light]: a plant can float its leaves upon the surface. No plant does this on a more spectacular scale or more aggressively than the giant Amazon water-lily. A leaf first appears o...
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