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Tiny butterfly proboscis inspires big ideas

 Science Nation

It's often a butterfly's wings that capture our attention, but scientists at Clemson University are intrigued with another part of the butterfly called the proboscis. It's an elongated tube-shaped, sucking mouthpart that the insect can uncoil, similar to the way an elephant uncoils its trunk. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), materials scientist Kostya Kornev, biologist Peter Adler and their team at Clemson University are studying the evolution of the proboscis, its biomechanical properties and the physics of how it works to make synthetic fibers with similar properties. And, this is no simple sipper! It's actually two tubes that can come apart and then naturally come back together, so it's self-repairing. The proboscis can also work like a sponge, as well as a straw, and its surface properties make it self-cleaning. So there's no sticky residue after a meal. Eventually, Kornev's team wants to build a proboscis-like micro siphon--or probe. Using capillary action through channels and pores, it would suck up or dispense tiny drops of fluid. Such a device would have wide-ranging applications, such as new medical tools.

Original air date: September 21, 2015

Credit: National Science Foundation