Anti-reflective coating inspired by fly eyes

The eyes of the fruit fly are covered by a thin and transparent coating with anti-reflective, anti-adhesive properties. Researchers discovered that the coating only consists of two ingredients: retinin and corneal wax. They succeeded in artificially reproducing the phenomenon on different kinds of surface. This process, which is very inexpensive and is based on biodegradable materials, could have numerous applications for contact lenses, medical implants and textiles.