Artificial chameleon skin can mimic its surroundings

CHAMELEONS ARE famous for their ability to change colour. But their reputation exceeds the reality. Chameleons can not, in fact, take on any colour they touch. And although their colour-shifting abilities are useful for camouflage, they are used mostly to regulate body temperature (darker shades absorb more energy from the sun), or to communicate with other chameleons (brighter colours seem to signify aggression).Nonetheless, chameleons have inspired Kim Hyeonseok and his colleagues at Seoul National University to create a new kind of artificial camouflage. In a paper published in , Dr Kim describes how their “artificial chameleon skin” can detect the colour of the environment in which it is placed, and mimic it to blend in.