Catching Up to Butterflies for Improved Security, Optics

Butterflies do it better, but at least they provided the inspiration, and thanks to them, we may have cash that is more secure.  PhysOrg headlined, “From butterflies’ wings to bank notes – how nature’s colors could cut bank fraud.”
    Scientists at the University of Cambridge were intrigued by the Indonesian Peacock or Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio blumei), “whose wing scales are composed of intricate, microscopic structures that resemble the inside of an egg carton” (a microphoto accompanies the article).  The structures, made of alternating layers of cuticle and air rather than pigments, set up optical patterns that intensify some colors and cancel others – producing vivid flashes of light.  These “photonic crystals” have been difficult to replicate – until now.
    “Using a combination of nanofabrication procedures – including self-assembly and atomic layer deposition – [Matthias] Kolle and his colleagues made structurally identical copies of the butterfly scales, and these copies produced the same vivid colours as the butterflies’ wings,” the article said.  Kolle was ecstatic: “We have unlocked one of nature’s secrets and combined this knowledge with state-of-the-art nanofabrication to mimic the intricate optical designs found in nature.”  He quickly added that “nature is better at self-assembly than we are” but humans have more materials to work with.
    One application of this technology will be to encrypt bank notes, making them nearly impossible for forgers to duplicate.  Kolle thinks this may be what butterflies are doing.  To some eyes they appear bright blue, but to others they appear green.  “This could explain why the butterfly has evolved this way of producing colour,” he said.  “If its eyes see fellow butterflies as bright blue, while predators only see green patches in a green tropical environment, then it can hide from predators at the same time as remaining visible to members of its own species.”
    He did not explain how the butterfly could have “evolved” such a clever system.  Perhaps it was designed.  Whether design or evolution, though, one thing is clear: Kolle admitted, “The shiny green patches on this tropical butterfly’s wing scales are a stunning example of nature’s ingenuity in optical design.”  The article includes one of Kolle’s photos of the glittering scales on the butterfly wing.

Regular readers have the patterns memorized by now: Darwinism contributes nothing to the story but a tacked-on, after-the-fact tale about the animal actively “evolving” some amazing capability “for the purpose of” doing something, with no explanation of how it did such a thing, even though human inventors, using intelligent design, cannot even come close to replicating it.  That’s why we award that part of the story the “Dumb Ideas” tag.  Any questions?
    The rest of the story is amazing.  Wonderful physics, the imitation of design in nature, fruitful science using both design detection and design imitation, no real debt to naturalism or Darwinism, benefits to society, increased understanding, all-around good coming from efforts that really are based in intelligent design.  Any questions?