Ever wanted to be able to change your outfit with one quick move as if you have a magic wand? Well, scientists have not yet come up with a magic wand but they recently figured out how chameleons change their color and may have developed a synthetic material that can mimic this amazing ability.
Chameleons change their color thanks to a layer nanocrystals in their skin cells. The colors switch whenever the skin is relaxed or stretched.
What experts are working on right now is developing a “flexible photonic metastructures for tunable coloration” that would be able to switch their colors as the chameleon does. It is a silicon film that is so much thinner that a human hair and it has tiny rows of ridges that reflect a specific wavelength of light. If you could manipulate the spacing between the ridges you can adjust thanks to those wavelengths of light.
The project is still under development so there won’t be a chance to shift colors of your clothes with a swift manipulation anytime soon, but it’s good to know that science is working it’s way through it.
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