OPALS AND BUTTERFLY WINGS

Everyone appreciates the vivid and iridescent colors of butterfly wings. These colors are not produced by dye molecules, but rather by the defraction of light off highly ordered and regular structures a thousand times bigger than a molecule, and ten thousand times smaller than the thickness of the butterfly's wing. The same sort of structures are responsible for the mysterious beauty of the fire opal. Understanding the physical structures which nature employs to bring these colors to life deepens out appreciation of the miracle that is the butterfly.