超能蝴蝶
蝴蝶与飞蛾，优雅而美丽，在春夏的天空会看见它们轻飞曼舞。绚烂色彩与优雅舞姿，艳压所有动物。但美，不是它们的唯一贡献。
透过强力的显微镜，科学家在蝶蛾类身上发现了奇妙的宝库及意想不到的秘密，可以借镜和应用去帮助世界持续发展。本节目将展开一次探索蝶蛾类构造的纳米旅程，从全球多个高科技实验室到森林深处、薰衣草田，细数多个奇妙品种。
以标志性的大蓝闪蝶为例，研究人员由它们闪烁的蓝色翅膀，揭示了产生结构色的方法，研发出利用纳米结构来控制光线。美国罗彻斯特大学光学研究所的郭春雷教授，一直致力复制蝴蝶翅膀结构。他研发了一种能够吸收光谱中所有颜色的物料，有机会为可再生能源带来革命性改变。他并利用蝴蝶翅膀的惊人抗水性，研发出一种不沉的金属。未来若海平面持续上升，这物料将在建造漂浮城市发挥极大作用。
从翅膀到触角，蚕蛾、玻璃翼蝶、袖蝶、帝王斑蝶和菜粉蝶，亦启发了科学家在许多不同领域的发明，包括能源效率、医药手术，甚至检测有毒物质，以拯救人们免受恐怖分子化学或气体袭击的威胁！
研究人员、生物学家和遗传学家与我们分享他们的超凡实验，一众专家包括物理学及仿生专家塞尔·贝狄亚，以及美国自然历史博物馆的昆虫学家谢茜嘉韦亚，则解释了一些蝶蛾类惊人的行为和能力。
蝴蝶与飞蛾提供了很多微小构造的应用灵感，同时亦警告人类，如未能保护这个不断创新的自然环境，会面对什么危机。
Butterflies and moths. Graceful and beautiful, flitting and floating in our spring and summer skies. Their delicate choreographies of dazzling colors are among the most amazing in the animal kingdom. But their beauty is not the only thing they can offer.
Through the lenses of powerful microscopes, scientists discover treasures of genius and unexpected secrets that can be adapted and applied to make our world better and more sustainable. This film is a journey into the nano-dimensions of butterflies, from high-tech labs around the world to the deepest forests and lavender fields, encountering amazing butterfly species.
Like the iconic Morpho: the study of its iridescent blue wing reveals a way to produce structural color. Its nanostructures have inspired researchers to control light. Chunlei Guo, who is continuously seeking to reproduce butterfly structures, has created a material capable of absorbing all colors of the spectrum, a discovery that might revolutionize the field of renewable energies. He is also working on the amazing hydrophobic properties of the wings in order to create an unsinkable metal; we can immediately imagine how useful it could be for the construction of floating cities if the ocean levels continue to rise.
From their wings to their antennae, the blue Morpho, the industrious Silk Moth, the astonishing and transparent Greta Oto, the resistant Heliconius, the enigmatic Monarch and the delicate white Cabbage Butterfly, inspire discoveries in many different fields such as energy efficiency, medicine and surgery or even in detecting toxics in order to save lives against terrorist chemical or gas attacks!
Researchers, biologists and geneticists, share with us their thrilling experiments, while experts – like Serge Berthier, a physicist and biomimicry expert, and Jessica Ware, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History – explain some of the butterflies' incredible behaviors and capacities.
Butterflies and moths provide lessons about what’s possible on the very smallest scales. But they also warn us about what’s at stake if we fail to protect this endlessly inventive natural environment.
