LEDs - a 30 million old technology

In 2001, Alexei Erchak and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated a method for building a more efficient LED. Now, Pete Vukusic and Ian Hooper at Exeter have shown that swallowtail butterflies evolved an identical method for signalling to each other in the wild, a method has been around for about 30 million years.

Well, you either use the latest technology and brains available and create something wondrous in the lab or you can get your inspirations from a lab that has been around for millions of years, Nature.

BBC News: Butterfly wings work like LEDs

If someone were to ask a question, what is more to learn from a simple organism such as a butterfly? Haven't we understood its life cycle already? Is there a need to study butterflies, or birds or even a humble fly for the matter? I hope the report above provides part of the answer. We have millions of species out there which we only gave a name to, we have not even scratched the surface of the wealth of knowledge they have to offer.

Will Nature ever cease to amaze? I think not. Just hope that we have enough left to admire her beauty for years to come.