Light Emitting Butterflies

Photos by Paul Caparatta

It was once said that photographers are “writers

of light” and that a daguerreotype is “a mirror with

a memory.” My interest in the wonders of light

extend beyond photography. It is through such

wonder that the bejeweled butterfly captured my

imagination all over again. A few things

happened to arouse my curiosity. I moved to

Texas where they are extremely abundant. I came

across an article about their connection to light.

(I will include a link to it at the end of this post.)

While looking into their influence on artists, I read

that Vladimir Nabokov thought of them as

creatures of exile. Exile interests me also, but I will

leave that topic for another time.

Clearly I’m not the only one that has been

enchanted by the butterfly. The allure of the

creature has captivated the minds of scientists

and artists alike since Aristotle’s time. The ancient

philosopher referred to the butterfly as "psyches”

or the breath and soul of anima. The magical

image of a fluttering butterfly drifting with the

wind is one that we’ve all witnessed. I commonly

associate the marvels of the butterfly with meta-

morphosis, transformation or migration. I now

associate it with the structure of light.

Butterflies are not only of interest to entomologist,

but are vastly interesting to physicists as well. In

physics, the butterfly has become synonymous

with photonics, the study of light. This is the

scientific detail that got me hooked more intensely

on the winged creature. What else can I learn

about light? The core of photonics has revolution-

ized our everyday existence in that it is the field

responsible for the scientific advancement of the

Light Emitting Diode (LED) used for computer

screens, traffic lights and car tail lights.

When physicists put the wing of a butterfly under

intense microscopes, they see scales with

photonic crystals and mirrors. It turns out that the

applications of the study of photonic crystals has

been integral to continual advancements in our

world of communications. The study of these

crystals has helped to advance physicists

understanding of how to funnel light more

efficiently through semiconductors such as fiber

optics, which are at the core of our über modern

day living. This includes the laser that reads

information on CDs and DVDs. Think of life

without them! Think of both as brought to you

via photonics.

As creatures of mimicry, humans have been

mimicking the butterflies capacity to signal one

another through the shimmering light of their

wings, via our fiber optics and LED laden equip-

ment. Can we think of our showcases

of communications as akin to the elegant

butterfly wing?

Here is a minor scientific explanation of how the

light reflecting butterfly wing works. When high-

energy ultraviolet radiation is absorbed, it is

reemitted as a lower-energy visible radiation,

which is known as fluorescence. The butterfly

wing, and the photonic crystals within the scales

of the wing, absorbs the ultraviolet radiation. The

light is then reemitted, via the crystals and mirrors

in the scales of the wing as fluorescence. On

some butterflies, this reemitted sunlight is seen

as blue or green light.

The dazzling color in butterfly wings has been a

mode of their signaling for millions of years, in

fact for the 30 to 130 million years butterflies

have existed. I think of the butterfly as prehistoric.

However, they possess an ultra sophisticated

system of communication through relays and

transmissions of light. In this regard, they were

light-years ahead us.

Through the study of butterfly signaling, scientists

have advanced our own communications.

Somehow the notion of being “writers of light”

has a greater relevance to the scale of a butterfly

wing. Our very modernity surrounds us with a

wide array of “mirrors with a memory” to write

on. We absorb and transmit light with every twist,

turn, invention or discovery down the road.

To see the National Geographic article that

sparked my imagination, follow this link:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1117_

051117_butterflies.html

Newseum Showcases Newspaper Headlines

So you would like to browse the headlines around
the globe. You can check them out at Newseum
online at:
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Drag your cursor across a country and see the front
page show up to the right.

European Southern Observatory

Astrophotographer, Stéphane Guisard, created this
image of the Milky Way using a simple digital
camera attached to a 10-centimeter telescope in
Atacama Desert, Chile. The starscape is an
assemblage of 1,200 images comprised of 52 fields
of view.

The sky portrait is part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom
project created by the European Southern
Observatory to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
Galileo's first viewing of the night sky through a
telescope. This is part of the International Year of
Astronomy.

For more info and images in regards to the project,
go to:
http://www.gigagalaxyzoom.org/G.html
or
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/slideshows/
milky-way.html
and
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/
47320/title/Stellar_panorama

The Fall, 2008

I like obscure films that aren't box office
hits, or get a lot of critical acclaim.

Everyone has a story, and the methods
of story telling vary.

The Fall has a unique story
line in that Roy, a stuntman, is confined
to an LA hospital circa 1915 while
recuperating from a broken heart and a
broken leg. He befriends a young girl,
Alexandria, who is mending a broken arm.
Alexandria becomes Roy's audience as he
weaves an epic tale of bandits and
tyrants, and gradually pulls her into his
dark scheme.

Aside from being visually stunning in the
real and surreal dream-like, unconscious
sequences, it is a touching story in that
youthful innocence, grand story telling
and love can bring both patients back
from the edge.

Aside from there being one too many
fights in the worldly bandit scenes, the
additional cure for brokenness, is the story
created within a story and the bond these
two patients forge around it.

Much like Eugene Atget, photographer Michael Padnos

continues the tradition of being a photographic chronicler

of social and cultural phenomenon by capturing transient

scenes in the shop windows of Europe. He also follows in

the steps of the Surrealists who reveled in Atget’s

photographs of the windows due to the reflections that

gave a double view of the world: inside and outside. This

view also emphasized the Surrealist fascination with

objects, chance, and juxtapositions.

Eugene Atget chronicled the exterior social and cultural life

of Paris in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Prior to and

during the city undergoing a major transformation, Atget

was able to capture the small interwoven medieval streets

before some gave way to grand boulevards. This change in

city streets was dubbed the Haussmannisation of Paris, after

the urban planner, Baron Haussmann who led the

urbanization projects.

Atget photographed continuously throughout the city and

the outer lying areas creating a prolific taxonomy of the city.

Amongst his vast collection are images of shop windows.

To see more of Michael Padnos photographs visit:

http://www.michaelpadnosphotography.com/index.php

or his work at the Panopticon Gallery:

http://www.panopt.com/images-new.php?a=40&all#.

To see images by Atget visit George Eastman Collection:

http://www.geh.org/fm/atget/htmlsrc/