This is where all the colors come from.
Color-changing sensor offers new way to track motion and stress
Dec 2024, phys.org
Yeah go ahead and read that and get back to me.
It's a mechanochromic strain sensor that changes color in response to mechanical stress, using magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles (MagPlas NPs) which form a uniform layer called an amorphous photonic array producing bright, consistent colors that remain stable when viewed from different angles, and which are transferred onto a flexible, stretchable material called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) enabling the sensor to change color under mechanical stress.
via Chungnam National University in Korea: Huu-Quang Nguyen et al, Mechanochromic strain sensor by magnetoplasmonic amorphous photonic arrays, Chemical Engineering Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.155297
Squid are some of nature's best camouflagers. Researchers have a new explanation for why
Mar 2025, phys.org
Chromatophores are pigmented organs that sit all over the squid's skin. They have muscle fibers on the outside that are filled with neurons, allowing the animal to neuromuscularly open and control these pigment sacks based on what's in their environment.Together with iridophores, which act as a kind of photo filter, adding greens and blues to the chromatophores' reds, yellows and browns, they give squid the ability to change color within hundreds of milliseconds, distributing the color all over their body."To have something sense the colors around it and distribute [them] within hundreds of milliseconds is really insane," Deravi says. "It's not something that's easy to do, especially in a living system that's under water."And then they made an artificial squid skin circuit.
via Northeastern University: Taehwan Kim et al, Cephalopod chromatophores contain photosensitizing nanostructures that may facilitate light sensing and signaling in the skin, Journal of Materials Chemistry C (2025). DOI: 10.1039/D4TC04333B
The first genetic editing in spiders with CRISPR‐Cas yields colorful silk
May 2025, phys.org
They developed an injection solution that included the components of the gene-editing system as well as a gene sequence for a red fluorescent protein. This solution was injected into the eggs of unfertilized female spiders, which were then mated with males of the same species. As a result, the offspring of the gene-edited spiders showed red fluorescence in their dragline silk — clear evidence of the successful knock-in of the gene sequence into a silk protein.
via University of Bayreuth's Biomaterials research group: Edgardo Santiago‐Rivera et al, Spider Eye Development Editing and Silk Fiber Engineering Using CRISPR‐Cas, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2025). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202502068
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| Fire retardant dropped on California after wildfires 2 - via Getty - Jan 2025 |
Long-used red pigment carmine has a surprisingly complex porous structure
Jun 2025, phys.org
Every artist knows about carmine red, or at least they know it comes from an insect and not a chemistry lab, and they know it's hard to get and it's expensive. In case you're not an artist - Carmine is a natural red coloring agent produced from an extract of the cochineal insect, rich in carminic acid, and which is combined with aluminum (Al) and calcium (Ca) to produce carmine.
Now they're using better microscopy, and find that it's actually a metal complex built from two calcium ions, two aluminum ions, and four organic ligand molecules of carminic acid. It makes a porous metal structure (that sounds to me like the MOFs you keep hearing about).
via Stockholm University: Erik Svensson Grape et al, Brilliantly Red: The Structure of Carmine, Crystal Growth & Design (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.5c00185
Pigment researchers create vivid yellows, oranges, reds that are durable, non-toxic
Jul 2025, phys.org
Brought to you by Mas Subramanian, who made color history in 2009 with the discovery of a vivid blue pigment now known commercially as YInMn Blue.
The work centers around the crystal structure of a rare mineral found in Norway called thortveitite, a silicate containing scandium and yttrium. Thortveitite isn't known for vibrant colors, but by introducing the abundant elements nickel, zinc and vanadium into a thortveitite-like crystal lattice, scientists have produced a collection of intense yellow, orange and reddish pigments.
Chromophores - the parts of a molecule that determine color by reflecting some wavelengths of light while absorbing others.
"Although divalent nickel is known to produce yellow and green colors in inorganic compounds, it rarely produces oranges and/or reds. The discovered pigments are stable under high temperatures and in acidic environments with no change in the structure or color properties, and they can be made in air at relatively low temperatures, around 750°C, which makes large-scale production feasible."
via Oregon State University: Yi-Chia Lin et al, Intense Yellow/Orange/Red Pigments Based on a Thortveitite-like Structure without Toxic Elements: Zn2-xNixV2O7, Chemistry of Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5c00324
True blue: Researchers create better blue food dye from algae
Aug 2025, phys.org
Phyco Blue (?) - natural blue food dye made of an algae protein called Phycocyanin
via Cornell University: Qike Li et al, Elucidating structure-functionality relationships of phycocyanin through size-exclusion chromatography coupled with in-line small-angle X-ray scattering, Food Hydrocolloids (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2025.111798
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