Articles

Swallowtail Butterfly Wings-Beautifully Designed LED's

by Andrew Sibley November 22, 2005

Researchers at Exeter University have been amazed at the complexity and design of the butterfly wing with its beautiful coloration, and discovered that the way light is emitted by the butterfly is comparable to the intricacies of the latest man-made Light Emitting Diode (LED). In the paper, published in Science[1] magazine, they suggest that human engineered LED’s can be made even more efficient by copying the butterfly’s wing.

Researchers Peter Vukusic and Ian Hooper of Exeter University studied the wing of the African swallowtail butterfly Princeps nireus and compared it to an LED that was developed by Alexei Erchak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2001. This highly efficient LED had micro-holes in the upper parts in the form of a two dimensional (2D) photonic crystal to allow light to escape. At the bottom was a reflector known as a Braggs reflector which directed light forwards.

This human design is strikingly similar to the butterfly design for emitting fluorescent light. But unlike the LED, the butterfly has no electronic circuitry to produce light. Instead the butterfly wing absorbs ultra-violet light, which is then re-emitted as an intense blue-green fluorescent colour. The light is projected forwards using reflectors at the back of the wing’s structure, which are similar to the Braggs reflectors in the LED. Light is then channelled through hollow air cylinders that act as micro-holes in the wing's surface. These allow light to escape forward, giving an intense burst of colour, but prevent it being lost to the side. This acts in much the same way as the 2D photonic crystals in the LED.

Dr Vukusic commented that;

“When you study these things and get a feel for the photonic architecture available, you really start to appreciate the elegance with which nature put some of these things together.”[2]

It's amazing that butterflies have evolved such sophisticated design features which can so exquisitely manipulate light and colour. Nature's design and engineering is truly inspirational.”[3]

Summary

The butterfly architecture is truly inspirational, and we give praise to God for His amazing handiwork in creating such beautiful creatures. But sadly good science has to be reported in terms of the mantra of evolution in order to be published. Scientists are forced to attribute the amazing beauty and order seen in creation, to random, uncaring, processes in time and space - processes that cannot increase order and have never been observed. We wonder whether Science would publish a paper reporting that the man-made LED just evolved without the input of intelligent design? Such a paper would rightly be considered an absurdity. And yet this is exactly what evolutionists would have us believe over the structure of the butterfly wing.

References

[1] Vukusic, P., Hooper, I., Directionally Controlled Fluorescence Emission in Butterflies, Science, Vol. 310, No. 5751, p.1151, 18th November 2005.

[2] BBC website, Butterfly wings work like LEDs, 18th November 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4443854.stm

http://www.csm.org.uk/news.php?viewmessage=38