Natural Photonics and Bioinspiration, Artech House, reviewed

We look at this interesting and cutting edge book by Sébastien R. Mouchet and Olivier Deparis. It is published by Art House and you can see more about it here.

Natural Photonics and Bioinspiration, Artech House, reviewed

It is pretty amazing how nature comes up with visual variety, and patterns to aid disguise. Some simple computer programs, when left to their own devices have often resulted in visual patterns that begin to resemble the visual complexity of some of these designs found in nature. Raising the question of whether nature’s disguises and camouflages have evolved from relatively simple algorithms stored within their DNA.

For these reasons we were interested to read & review this book. It has however been written for a more academic audience, which seems a slight shame as this is a fascinating topic. Chapters often end with up to eight pages of footnotes and academic citations, which does break the flow, and feels like a lot of dead space to occur within the book. Similarly at some points mathematical equations are listed which again run over large sections of pages. All of this serves to drive away the more general reader, for what could have been a fascinating read. This book could have done with an editor who was more cognisant of creating something that could have reached a wider audience.

See more about the book here

Photonic structures occurring in biological tissues such as butterfly wings, beetle elytra or fish scales are responsible for a broad range of optical effects including iridescence, narrow-band reflection, large solid-angle scattering, polarization effects, additive color mixing, fluid-induced color changes, controlled fluorescence.

Studies have provided understanding of the underlying optical mechanisms and the biological functions as well as inspiration for the design and development of novel photonic devices, also called bioinspiration. In this forward-thinking book, the research related to photonic structures in natural organisms is reviewed with a main focus on bioinspired applications.

More about the authors

Olivier Deparis is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Namur in Belgium. He received his Ph.D. in applied sciences from Faculté Polytechnique de Mons.

Sébastien R. Mouchet is a postdoctoral researcher at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) at the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter and the Department of Physics, University of Namur. He received Ph.D. from the University of Namur.

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