How nature creates the world's brightest colours without pigment
Step inside a virtual tour of Kew Gardens' latest exhibition. Artist and scientist Andrew Parker explores the phenomenon of Pure Structural Colour, demonstrating how sunlight interacting with microscopic surfaces produces the most dazzling hues on Earth.
Displayed in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, the exhibition examines how certain plants and animals achieve intense brilliance. Unlike traditional pigments, these colours are produced by sunlight reflecting off microscopic structures within surface layers, such as the iridescent blue-greens found on hummingbirds and butterfly wings.
The showcase also highlights a scientific milestone: for the first time in history, humans have successfully recreated this effect artificially. Using cutting-edge technology, Andrew Parker and researchers at Lifescaped have reproduced these structural colours, bridging the gap between biological wonder and human innovation.
Source: Virtual tour: Naturally Brilliant Colour l Kew Gardens
