The colors in nature are sometimes pigments but other times they are nano-scale structures that don’t absorb different wavelengths of light but diffract them.  Think rainbows and you realize the sky isn’t painted with different colors from Sherwin Williams.  Now scientists from GE Global Research have used the architecture found in the wings of blue Morpho butterflies to design new thermal mass resonators.  Butterfly wings containing carbon nanotubes were able to sense temperature changes of less than 0.02 degrees Celsius in an outrageous 0.025 seconds.  Not quite ready for prime time, it is predicted that these materials would be great for sensing vapors and other things like that.  How cool is that?
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