Scientists a step closer to colouring butterflies' wings

New York

ONLY nature can paint the gorgeous colours and patterns on a butterfly's wings. But scientists said on Monday that they have mastered the first steps and hope in time to control the entire colouring system, making it possible to design living butterfly wings.

The patterning and colours on butterflies' wings are governed by suites of genes. The new CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technique now makes it much easier to figure out what a gene does by deleting it and seeing what happens.