fullscreen

eFinder

eFinder

Home › Biomimicry › Article

Nature's 'master painters': Study reveals how damselflies break optical barriers to create saturated colors

Phys · · 347 words · By Ben-Gurion University
Biomimicry Sustainable Materials Optical Physics
headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing
Ready to play
Daily briefing

What to know about Biomimicry

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University and other institutions have studied how blue-tailed damselflies produce vivid, saturated colors using structural dispersion and pigment loading. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest potential applications for creating sustainable photonic materials to replace synthetic pigments.

Propaganda risk 10%
Claims checked 8
Techniques found 1
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center100%
Right0%

2 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Nature's 'master painters': Study reveals how damselflies break optical barriers to create saturated colors Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have uncovered for the first time the…

Why it matters

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a new blueprint for creating sustainable, highly saturated photonic materials that could replace toxic synthetic pigments in industries ranging from cosmetics to textiles.

Common ground

Structural colors in nature are often produced by photonic glasses—randomly arranged nanospheres that scatter light.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University and other institutions have studied how blue-tailed damselflies produce vivid, saturated colors using structural dispersion and pigment loading. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest potential applications for creating sustainable photonic materials to replace synthetic pigments.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nature-master-painters-reveals-damselflies.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 8 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 3
verified Verified 2
info Single Source 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
check_circle
Claim 1: “Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have uncovered for the first time the "ingenious" biological strategies that allow blue-tailed damselflies to produce strikingly vivid, angle-independent colors.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that researchers at Ben-Gurion University revealed how blue-tailed damselflies create saturated, angle-independent colors using photonic glass structures.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU; Hebrew: אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev) is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli national founder…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-Gurion_University_of_the_N…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following is a list of presidents, rectors, and noted alumni and professors of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ben-Gurion_University_…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Negev ( NEG-ev; Hebrew: הַנֶּגֶב, romanized: haNégev) or Naqab (Arabic: النقب, romanized: an-Naqab) is the name for a desert and semidesert area in southern Israel. Today, it forms the bulk of the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 2: “Tali Lemcoff et al, Damselflies overcome color saturation barriers of photonic glasses via pigment loading and refractive index modulation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2527433123”
VERIFIED
The specific paper title, authors (Tali Lemcoff et al), journal (PNAS), and year (2026) are explicitly cited in the web search results.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Publication details. Tali Lemcoff et al, Damselflies overcome color saturation barriers of photonic glasses via pigment loading and refractive index modulation, Proceedings of the National Academy of …
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nature-master-painters-reveals…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Thesaurus term/Semi thesaurus term Keywords indexed to the article. All keywords is available on JDreamIII(charged). On J-GLOBAL, this item will be available after more than half a year after the reco…
https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/en/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=2025022001379…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Read the full research paper.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1350462022014540…
check_circle
Claim 3: “The damselflies "load" their spheres with a yellow pigment.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the use of pteridine/pterin pigments (which are yellow/white) within the nanospheres of Ischnura elegans.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Here, we show that blue-tailed damselflies precisely modulate the average size of pteridine nanospheres to tune the color of a photonic glass during maturation.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2527433123
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Developmental changes also affect the blue eighth abdominal segment on the tail, after ... We caught adult blue-tailed damselflies (I. elegans) at two ...
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article-pdf/doi/10.1…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — These authors termed the pigments 'pterin', from the Greek 'πτερόν' (pterón—'feather, wing'), calling the yellow pigment xanthopterin and the white pigment ...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8370806/
verified
Claim 4: “Structural colors in nature are often produced by photonic glasses—randomly arranged nanospheres that scatter light.”
VERIFIED
Multiple scientific sources describe photonic glasses as disordered materials/randomly arranged nanospheres that produce non-iridescent (angle-independent) structural color.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Here, we report on photonic glasses, new disordered materials obtained via a modified self-assembling technique. These random materials are solid thin films which exhibit rich novel light diffusion pr…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41850647_Photonic_G…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Photonic glasses (PhGs), on the other hand, are disordered structures with short-range order only and therefore the interaction with light results in non-iridescent structural color, meaning the color…
https://www.academia.edu/11595366/Photonic_Glasses_A_Step_Be…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Non-iridescent structural colors based on disordered arrangement of monodisperse spherical particles, also called photonic glass, show low color saturation due to gradual transition in the reflectivit…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26119-8?error=coo…
verified
Claim 5: “The interdisciplinary team included researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Lund University, Aalto University and the University of Bristol.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence lists these universities in separate contexts (e.g., a membership directory or an initiative), but does not provide a source confirming they were part of this specific interdisciplinary research team for the damselfly study.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Adi Shamir (Hebrew: עדי שמיר; born July 6, 1952) is an Israeli cryptographer and inventor. He is a co-inventor of the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) algorithm (along with Ron Rivest and Len Adleman), a c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shamir
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards, created in 1998, aim to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scie…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Oréal-UNESCO_For_Women_in_Sc…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Shafrira Goldwasser (Hebrew: שפרירה גולדווסר; born November 14, 1959) is an Israeli-American computer scientist. She is the RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafi_Goldwasser
+ 3 more evidence sources
check_circle
Claim 6: “The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a new blueprint for creating sustainable, highly saturated photonic materials”
CORROBORATED
The study is explicitly linked to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in multiple search results, including the specific title regarding overcoming color saturation barriers.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In 2015 INSA has constituted a junior wing for young scie…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Science_Academ…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (often abbreviated PNAS or PNAS USA) is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceedings_of_the_National_Ac…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Russian: Доклады Академии Наук СССР, Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR (DAN SSSR), French: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de l'URSS [kɔ̃t ʁɑ̃dy də …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceedings_of_the_USSR_Academ…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 7: “The research team, led by Prof. Benjamin A. Palmer and Ph.D. student Tali Lemcoff from BGU's Department of Chemistry, discovered that blue-tailed damselflies (Ischnura elegans) overcome these physical limitations using two elegant evolutionary solutions”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the general research topic is corroborated, the specific naming of Prof. Benjamin A. Palmer and Tali Lemcoff as the leads for this specific discovery is not independently corroborated by multiple distinct news/academic sources in the provided evidence, though Palmer's profile is mentioned.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1944th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 944th year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — This article lists direct English translations of common Latin phrases. Some of the phrases are themselves translations of Greek phrases. This list is an automatically updated combination of the twent…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_(full)
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Yalies are persons affiliated with Yale University, commonly including alumni, current and former faculty members, students, and others. Here follows a list of notable Yalies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yale_University_people
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 8: “To keep the color sharp, damselflies ensure that as spheres get larger, their density, or refractive index, drops.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence mentions a correlation between blue shift and nanosphere size, but the specific mechanism of decreasing refractive index as spheres get larger is only mentioned in the context of the specific paper title/abstract and not corroborated by a second independent source.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The Blue Shift in Damselfly Colors Is Correlated With a Decrease in Nanosphere Size. Reflectance spectra from the thoraxes of over 100 male I. elegans ...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2527433123
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Here, we investigate the body colours in the adult stages of the blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans, a model species in research on female colour ...
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article-pdf/doi/10.1…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — May 10, 2013 ... The scales on the wings of many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) produce striking iridescent colors by interference, diffraction, scattering ...
https://pubs.rsc.org/sign-in?returnUrl=/ra/article/3/35/1486…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.