Mystique No Longer SciFi?

First, MIT came out with an unbelievably effective invisibility cloak and now, engineers from the University of California at Berkeley have created a new, very thin and flexible chameleon like artificial skin.  Okay – it might not make you a super model like Rebecca Romijn but it just might make you nearly as cool as Mystique.  Engineers have only developed a one inch square of color changing silicon but the technology looks very promising.  It currently changes color via touch but developers are confident they will soon be able to make it responsive to its environment – it will change colors based upon its environment.  Commercial applications include entertainment, hunting, signage that allows for more dramatic color changes, safe cases,car paint, boxes for anything you might want to keep secret, just about anything you could imagine, and last but not least: Mystique cosplays costumes!  Currently, there appears to be no effort to make the material change its texture to make 3D changes like a cephalopod (or like Mystique in some scenes) but it isn’t hard to imagine that this will only be a matter of time.

Like my previous post about Magneto, there are limitations to keep you from becoming the superhero you might want to emulate.  In this case, there are no promises that the new chameleon skin will be able to change your figure on demand.  Rats.  However, there is no reason to believe that you wouldn’t be able to tuck and nip a little bit by adjusting sections of the camouflage!  Then again …  doing so might require you to wear little to nothing at all!  Additionally, you’ll still have to practice intense yoga stretching and brush up on your martial arts if you want people to respect your superhero-ness but don’t worry.  Pretty soon we’ll be able to download knowledge like that from computers so then you’ll only have to practice your stretching.

Believe it or not, I’m going to conclude this trilogy of X-Men developments in science with unbelievably exciting cutting edge medical developments: Wolverine No Longer SciFi is next.  Soon, some of us may be extolling our genealogy by copying our favorite highlander: I’m Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod!  Keep your eyes peeled.