大自然

田学苗

Scientists at the University of CentralFlorida （UCF） have created a new kind ofpaint thats super light and super tough.The colors in the new paint arent at alllike those in most paints. Instead， theyremore like the colors on a butterflys wings.

The colors in most paints come frompigments—small amounts of colored stuffmixed into the paint. For hundreds ofyears， humans have been mixing differentminerals， metals， or chemicals together toproduce different colors of paint.

But nature has another way to createcolor， called “structural color”. Structuralcolor comes from tiny shapes on the sur?faces of things like wings， feathers， orshells. Normally， we never see the shapesthat create these colors because theyre sotiny. Now scientists have used nanotechno?logy （纳米技术） to make paint with struc?tural color.

Because the new paint doesnt havepigments， the paint is extremely light. Alittle bit goes a long way. In regular paints，pigments break down and fade over time.Thats not true for structural color.“ Oncewe paint something with structural color， itshould stay for centuries，” says Dr Chanda.Whats more， the new paint doesnt heat uplike regular paint. Thats true even fordarker colors. The new paint can keepsurfaces up to 30 ℉ （16.6 ℃） cooler thannormal paint. Using the paint on buildingsin cities could help cool cities and reducethe electricity spent on air conditioning.

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Where does structural color comefrom？