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Chameleon Liquid Could Replace LCDs

InvisblePinkUnicorn writes "NewScientist reports on a color-changing liquid that could cheaply replace the color components of standard LCDs. According to researchers at UC Riverside, the liquid 'contains tiny iron oxide particles coated with plastic. It is cheap and easy to make, and could also be used in flexible, rewritable, electronic paper.' From the article: 'The opposing forces of electrostatic repulsion [in the plastic] and magnetic attraction [in the iron oxide] result in the particles arranging themselves into an ordered structure, known as a colloidal "photonic crystal". The colloidal crystal reflects light because the spacing between neighboring particles in the structure is equivalent to the wavelength of light. Also, tuning the spacing slightly alters the exact wavelength, or colour, of light that is reflected. This can easily be done by varying the strength of the magnetic field applied to the crystal.'"

5 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Liquid Paper already exists.. by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 5, Funny

    And it's called white-out, duh!

    1. Re:Liquid Paper already exists.. by ringfinger · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude -- You should clean the white out off your computer monitor - then you might be able to actually READ THE ARTICLE...

    2. Re:Liquid Paper already exists.. by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 4, Funny

      I didn't RTFA. I assumed that they were talking about actual chameleon liquid. I was thinking all those "Will It Blend?" experiments had finally paid off.

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      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  2. Re:lets get to it by object88 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Too expensive, too cancer-causing, too impossible, etc.

    I hate it when my new technology crosses that painful threshold between "slightly impossible" and "too impossible".

  3. Re:But wait... by tsa · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, because the wall behind your monitor changes all the time! Never a dull moment there!

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    -- Cheers!