What is so special about butterflies?

In this episode of The Sports Engineering Podcast, we sit down with Professor Manish Tewari and Dr. Lulu Xu to explore how nature is inspiring the next generation of smart textiles. We cover the fields inspiration from butterfly wings and lotus leaves and dive into how tiny structures can unlock huge performance gains. We discuss how textiles are evolving from passive materials into active systems, capable of sensing, monitoring, and even transforming how we collect data in sport. Could your kit soon replace the lab? And how do we balance performance with sustainability as we move away from traditional materials?