Dean Edell talking about insect research leading to faster computers

I was speaking to my son this morning about how research in a field which may seem unimportant can lead to important breakthroughs in unrelated fields. As an example, I told him about something I half remembered from Dean Edell’s show. He was speaking about someone doing research on beetle wings or something and this led to better ways to shrink integrated circuit masks or something. Does anyone know the details of this?

Thanks,
Rob