Nanoscapes

Making the invisible, visible! 

Images of butterfly wings at the microscopic scale are stunning, and at the nanoscopic scale they become otherworldly. 

The colorful images in the animated short Nanoscapes were taken with light and electron microscopes at magnifications up to 50,000x. From iridescent blues to vivid greens, butterflies produce colors by modulating how light is reflected from their wings. 

In other words, pigments are not the whole color story. Some color comes from intricate nano structures, and different organisms have evolved unique approaches to this phenomenon, called structural coloration. So a blue butterfly wing is not blue, but appears blue when tiny ridges bounce light in a way that adds together the amplitudes that make the wing appear blue. 

What’s more, the ultraviolet patterns on butterfly wings - invisible to the naked human eye - are among the most complex UV-reflecting structures in the animal kingdom.

The elaborate nanoscopic topography of butterfly wings has produced a wealth of data on how structural coloration works, and Nanoscapes is an artistic reimagining of exciting new research focused on how butterflies actually build these remarkable, infinitesimal landscapes. 

Shot at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and the Martin Lab at George Washington University, a team of microscopists generated thousands of images over three years to create the animated shorts Nanoscapes and Biopixels. The score was created in advance of the animation, inspired by the material and conceptual layers of the project.