Engineering a polymer network to act as active camouflage on demand

The animal kingdom is full of creatures with active camouflage. What looks like a drab pile of sand and rocks might actually be a brightly colored squid, expanding and contracting structures within their skin to reveal shades of brown and gray instead of vibrant blue and yellow. Known as chromatophores, these cells can expand and retract internal reflective plates in response to external stimuli, allowing the animal to match the colors and patterns of their surroundings, and disappear in an instant.