In this video Dr Chris Forman shows us his incredible images of a fruit fly foot and beetle antenna.

Dr Forman:
"Nature has found remarkable ways of using small amounts of energy to combine common elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen into fascinating and complex assemblies like these insects shown here. If we could do the same in our manufacturing processes then perhaps we could recycle our products more easily and we wouldn't use as much energy processing large lumps of aluminium, concrete and plastic. My research into biomaterials tries to learn from nature how to combine the same basic materials into a wide range of structures that perhaps, one day, may be used in all kinds of products from food to factories!"

Size of these images:

μm = micron (one thousandth of a millimetre).

Fruit fly foot: 50 μm across (thin strand of human hair).

Antenna: 60-70 μm across (strand of human hair).

More info about this research:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/?p=24151

More images:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwMhSFd

Dr Chris Forman's profile:
http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/cjf41

Thanks to Dr Bill O'Neill and Dr Paul Barker.

Department of Engineering:
http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk

Music by Joe Snape:
http://www.larmlicht.wordpress.com

Find more Cambridge research here:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research