Blue Morpho butterflyCourtesy Wikimedia Commons When is cash money like a Blue Morpho butterfly? When the manufacturers of said cash money are inspired by the ultra-cool iridescent nano-qualities of said butterfly's wings to make cash money nearly-impossible to counterfeit. Three cheers for the powers of biomimicry!

So what's happening here?
Blue Morpho butterfly wing (reflected light)Courtesy F. Nijhout, Duke University The Blue Morpho is unique because its vibrant color isn't due to pigment - it's due to a very special structure of the wings that reflects light in a very specific way. If you wet the butterfly's wings, or light the wings from behind, they look completely different - no longer the shock of gorgeous blue - because the light reflects off the wing structure differently.

Since it's highly unlikely that counterfeiters are going to have,
Blue Morpho butterfly wing (microribs)Courtesy Shinya Yoshioka, Osaka University or have access to, the equipment to replicate or design their own comparable nano-structures any time soon, this counts as a win for governments.

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