Glasswing Butterflies - KQED

Glasswing butterflies aren’t made of glass, but their transparent wings help them blend with their surroundings, protecting them from predators. This Deep Look episode from KQED takes the time to observe the life cycle of glasswing butterflies (Greta oto), as well as the special nanopillars responsible for their non-reflecting wings.

While camouflage is common in nature, actual attempts at invisibility are rare. “Glasswings excel at being dull, and that helps them hide in plain sight.”

File this video under biomimicry. From KQED.org:

By better understanding how these butterflies reduce glare, [Nipam Patel Lab doctoral candidate] Aaron Pomerantz and the other researchers hope that technologies might arise to increase the efficiency of solar panels by reducing the amount of light that bounces off the surface of the panel before it can be turned into electricity.

“Nature’s already figured out solutions to many of the problems that we have today,” he said."

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What would it take to become invisible? Have something fun cookin’ up on Glasswing butterfly research & a media project - can’t wait to share them soon! #gretaoto #glasswing #butterfly #transparency #invisible

A post shared by Aaron Pomerantz (@nextgenscientist) on Apr 17, 2020 at 5:05pm PDT

More from Pomerantz’s site TheNextGenScientist.com:

So, what’s the deal Glasswings? Are you transparent to go unseen? Are you bright to show off warning colors? Perhaps a bit of both? I think it’d be interesting if the dual nature serves to avoid a certain kind of predator under reflected light. Another possibility is that they’re showing off ultraviolet colors as warnings, which would be invisible to us, but clear as day to other animals such as birds, many of which contain opsins in their eyes capable of detecting UV. Either way, they’re a beautiful group of butterflies and it’s a beautiful scientific mystery to (attempt to) solve the evolution and development of transparency."

 

The Origin of Birds - Dr. Julia Clarke

Paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke shares the evidence that connects modern-day birds with dinosaurs in this 19 minute exploration: The Origin of Birds. Also: Archaeopteryx, one of the most important fossils ever discovered.

The video belongs to HHMI BioInteractive‘s Great Transitions in Evolution, a series about the “fossils of animals with features that are intermediate between those of ancestral and modern groups–or transitional fossils–provide evidence for the evolutionary origin of key anatomical structures.” More about the video:

The discovery of Archaeopteryx in a quarry in Germany in the early 1860s provided the first clue that birds descended from reptiles. But what kind of reptile? In the last 40 years, scientists have identified many shared features between birds and two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods.

The film illustrates many of the practices of science, including asking important questions, formulating and testing hypotheses, analyzing and interpreting evidence, and revising explanations as new evidence becomes available.

HHMI BioInteractive also has an abbreviated film guide for educators [pdf], a transcript, and videos available for download.