Meta-microscopy of insect tissue: How nature grows bicontinuous nanosolids

几种蝴蝶生长出复杂的纳米雕刻基质，其手性网络结构赋予了非凡的光学特性，包括珠宝般的反射。形成过程仍然是神秘的，这是一个自底向上的自我组装的壮观案例，其规模远远超过实验室所能达到的规模。该项目旨在通过(a)对物种进行断层扫描，其中捕获的生长位点代表发育的时间冻结快照，以及(b)将发育中的蝴蝶翅膀的微米分辨率体内显微镜与生长模型相结合，以推断纳米尺度的信息，来破译这个过程。这一见解将导致自组装策略的蓝图，并阐明内细胞膜的功能和形式。

Several butterfly species grow a complex nano-sculptured matrix whose chiral network structure confers remarkable optical properties, including jewel-like reflections. The formation process remains mysterious and a spectacular case of bottom-up self-assembly at far larger scales than accessible in the lab. The project aims to decipher this process, by (a) tomography of a species where arrested growth sites represent time-frozen snapshots of the development, and (b) by a combination of micron-resolved in-vivo microscopy of a developing butterfly wing with a growth model to infer nanometer-scale information. This insight will lead to blueprints for self-assembly strategies and shed light on function and form of inner-cellular membranes.