May 3, 2012 | Pippa

Adaptive colour-changing clothes have taken a step forward with a design borrowed from octopuses. Cephalopods – octopuses, cuttlefish and squid – control their skin colour using muscles that move sacks of pigment nearer the surface when they want to appear darker.

Now scientists have copied this muscle design. They think it could be used in camouflage clothing that adapts to your surroundings or in ‘smart skin’ that keeps you warm or cool by changing colour.