Description

Lepidoptera and Coleoptera – butterflies and beetles – are the most beautifully colored insects we can find. This book explores the origin of these brilliant colors from a physics perspective, beginning with the simplest question: Why Colors? The author masterfully explains at an introductory level the coloring of insects and illustrates his points with more than 240 brilliant figures. The book is a rich source for optical physicists, biologists, and teachers alike. Serge Berthier teaches physics at the Denis Diderot-Paris 7 University and researches biologic structures, colors and biomimetism at the Institut des NanoSciences de Paris ( Pierre and Marie Curie-Paris 6 University and CNRS). He teaches solid state optics in the post-graduate degree “Optics and material” and the post-graduate research degree “Optics and Photonic” for the Denis Diderot University. He also teaches electromagnetism and laser physics to undergraduates at the Paris-Jussieu Institut of Technology. Iridescence.- Why Colors.- Lepidoptera Description and Scales of Observation.- Coleoptera Description and Observation Scales.- Changing Colors: Structures or Pigments?.- Physical Colors, Chemical Colors Basics of Solid State Optics.- 1-Dimensional Structures: Interferences.- 2-Dimensional Structures: Interferences and Diffraction.- 3-Dimensional Structures: Crystalline Diffraction.- Amorphous Structures: Scattering.- Pigments and Pigmentary Colors.- Thermoregulation and Spectral Selectivity.- Vision and Colorimetry.