Geckos are small lizards that can walk on walls or even ceilings. The toe of a gecko's foot contains hundreds of flap-like ridges called lamellae. On each of these are millions of hairs called setae that are ten times thinner than a human's hair. Under further examination you can see that each setae hair divides into even smaller strands called spatulae, each only a few hundred nanometers thick. This means that hundreds of millions of hairs are pulled towards the surface through attractive forces. These attractive forces are so strong that a gecko can hang its whole weight on just one toe! Even more interesting is that the gecko can control when their toes will stick and when they will release. Researchers are looking into ways to mimic this interesting biological structure to create one-way adhesives.

The Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is a flowering plant native to tropical Asia. It has been honoured for thousands of years because it grows out of muddy waters looking sparkling clean. In 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan studied the Lotus to figure out exactly how this occurred. Plants like the lotus have nanosized bumps on the surface of their cells that create valleys between the bumps that are too small for the water to get into. This keeps the water on top of the bumps. These structures, along with a waxy coating, cause the water to bead up and roll off the leaves. The water is attracted more to itself and the dirt then to the leaf, so as the water rolls off it takes the dirt with it. This fascinating discovery of nanostructures in nature is helping scientists to develop water resistant and self-cleaning products like paints and fabrics.

There is an interesting species of Brazilian beetle, Lamprocyphus augustus, that shimmers iridescent green from almost any angle. This amazing property was studied by researchers at the University of Utah. They found that the scales of the beetle contain a crystal structure that scientists have been trying to create for years, called photonic crystals. A photonic crystal is a three dimensional periodic structure that can control and manipulate photons (the basic component of light). The nanocrystals in the scales of the beetle are diamond-like but are made out of chitin, which forms the hard exoskeleton of most insects. Scientists were able to determine the crystal structure using a scanning electron microscope to image cross-sections of a scale. They used a focused ion beam to slowly shave the cross-section down layer by layer. Then by stacking some 150 images in a computer they were able to reconstruct the whole crystal structure. A truly amazing discovery! Scientists hope to use photonic crystals to develop better, more efficient solar cells, telecommunication equipment, sensors, and even optical computer chips. Optical computer chips could run on light instead of electricity.

In the optical world, it is sometimes important to control how reflective or refractive a surface is. For example, in solar cells you want to capture as much light energy as possible. When industry wants their products to be less reflective, they apply anti-reflective coatings (ARCs). A moth's eye has virtually no reflection of light, a strategy to make them less visible to predators. The antireflective phenomenon is created by an array of tiny pyramid-like structures on the surface of the cornea termed corneal nipples. These structures are hexagonal in shape and very efficient at absorbing light, allowing the moth to see in dim or dark conditions. This interesting design from nature is inspiring researchers to create new manufacturing processes to mimic the nanostructures and has use in increasing the efficiency of solar panels.

Edelweiss, Leontopodium nivale, is a European alpine flower found in rocky limestone high in the mountains. Its common name comes from the German words edel, meaning noble and weiss, for white. The leaves and flowers appear woolly because they are covered in dense white hairs which protect the flower from cold and the strong UV light at high altitudes. The hair is actually made up of thin hollow filaments that have nanoscale structures in the 100 –2 00 nanometers range. They absorb ultraviolet light, but reflect all visible light which is why they appear white. Through biomimicry or biomimetics, which is the study and imitation of nature's remarkable and efficient designs, researchers have reproduced the structure of these filaments for human UV protection.