Using Viruses to Dye Fabric
People who still rely on public laundromats live in terror of bleach. If one person spills their bleach over a counter, or overloads the machine, an entire wardrobe is wiped out. But someday clothing could be entirely bleach-resistant. It won't be dyed with pigments. It will be dyed with viruses.
Most modern clothing is dyed using a simple system. Pigments are made, either from natural ingredients or during a manufacturing process. The pigments absorb certain types of light, and reflect others. The reflected shades are the pigment's official 'colors'. The clothes are then soaked in, or selectively exposed to, these pigments. They then take on the pigment's light-reflective qualities, and are officially dyed. Bleach breaks the chemical bonds of the pigments, and changes their light-reflective qualities, changing the color of the clothes.
The light absorption and reflection in molecules isn't the only way to change the color of a substance. There are also structural colors. The silver and gold beetles of Costa Rica have exoskeletons of collagen, which is a boring brown in cockroaches. The beetles layer cells of the substance to manipulate incoming lightwaves, causing the surface of beetle to appear to be as shiny as a chromed bumper. This color isn't added with small pieces of pigment, but built into the structure of the substance.
Via @JPWickwire
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Saw this on io9 as well. Interesting stuff, and would love to see what some of the colours would be, as well if the patterns that emerged would be viral in shape. One step closer to clothes that would naturally change colour depending on the surounding environment.
It could bring a whole new meaning to spilling food on your clothes.
