Scientists build camouflage tech using liquid crystals that work like octopus cells

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In their new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, engineers used thin, flexible membranes – made from a polymer network of liquid crystals – to build an artificial chromatophore that can change colours instantly from near-infrared to visible to ultraviolet, on command. Earlier designs incorporating this mechanism, scientists say, were impossible to use in settings with fixed dimensions, such as displays or windows, but since the artificial chromatophores need less than 20 per cent deformation, they believe it can be arranged like pixels in an LCD monitor. open image in gallery Artificial chromatophores can be used to generate complex displays, scientists say “In looking at how some animals have evolved structural colour, we realised they had stretchy cells that worked like pixels in a display and that we could potentially take a similar approach,” study lead-author Shu Yang said in a statement. This phenomenon of structural colour, which happens when light interacts with microscopic features of a surface, is recreated in the study using liquid crystals.