Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Bitter blueberry beats butterfly and beetle

And that's how we alliterate here at The Blog of Phyz. But I digress.

The Blue Morpho butterfly and the scarab beetle derive iridescent color from the manner in which light interacts with their structure on a microscopic scale. The beetle even circularly polarizes reflected light.

But the Pollia condensata blueberry outshines them both. Literally. This poison fruit is so shiny it looks like it's made of metal.

The Smithsonian has a nice story about it.

As does NPR.

As does Huffington Post.

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