What looks like strange planets in dark space are actually glimpses of the microstructures forming the Giant Blue Morpho’s wings, as seen through a microscope. Simon told me about how a Blue Morpho’s wings aren’t actually blue (have no blue pigment) but appear blue as a result of a physical phenomenon called structural coloration — microstructures interfering with light. This is almost the same phenomenon as iridescence (making a surface appear to change colours as the observer’s angle of view or the illumination angle changes, think of the soap film in a bubble).
We had found Blue Morpho’s wings in the street about half a year ago. Someone threw a small butterfly collection away — several butterflies pinned to a stick. It looked very cruel and we would have never killed a Blue Morpho for the sake of an experiment, but since we stumbled upon such a rare treasure, we picked up one wing and stored it in a book.
Geeks out of the box 