We can soon thank butterfly tongues for better cancer treatments and vaccines
The blue morpho butterfly's scale structure could launch a thousand innovations. (Peter Wey/Deposit Photos/)For more than 130 million years, butterflies have graced our planet. For much of our own history we’ve enjoyed them, but never knew much about them. Over the past 10 years, that’s changed. Using high-tech tools, science has discovered hitherto undreamed of truths about these “flying flowers”—from how monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles each fall to a mountain range in Mexico to how they create such stunning wing patterns. And some of these discoveries have even helped researchers find new ways to benefit people’s health. Read more in The Language of Butterflies by Wendy Williams, published by Simon and Schuster on June 2, 2020.Several years ago, Clemson University’s Konstantin Kornev accompanied his young daughters as they chased butterflies around a sunny South Carolinian field. The girls found the insects’ ebullient colors and fitful flight behavior irresistibly...