Students had the opportunity to view the Director of MBL, Dr. Nipam Patel's collection of butterflies. Students saw examples of butterflies that use structural features instead of pigments to create colors. In addition, Dr. Patel demonstrated that looks can be deceiving. Butterflies that look similar are frequently different species, while some butterflies that look less similar are more closely related and can reproduce with each other.
"Nipam Patel, Ph.D., is Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and a Professor at the University of Chicago. He joined the MBL in 2018 from University of California, Berkeley, where he was Professor and Co-chair of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology."
The current work in the Patel Lab is divided into three main project areas: