Harbin Institute of Technology

The desert-dwelling Namaqua chameleon has a pretty neat trick – it changes skin color to stay cool when outdoor temperatures rise, and stay warm when they drop. An experimental new coating could one day do the same thing for our homes.

​​We've already seen several versions of touch-sensitive "electronic skin," that could be used to bring tactile sensation to robotic limbs. Scientists from China, however, are taking a different approach – they've created an array of hair-like sensors that protrude up from an elastic skin.​