One reason to be cheerful today is that, as usual, the human race persists in applying its enormous brainpower to (apparently) the ultimately trivial.

Ever have one of those days or been in one of those situations where all you want to do is blend into the background and become imvisible? Well it seems you may be able to do it in the near future thanks to Carlos Gonzalez in an obscure Basque laboratory (no ladies, not one of those funny corset things that do good things for your figure, its somewhere in Northern Spain!)

I came across the following article earlier in the Alchemist and for those of you who appreciate such oddities I reproduce it in full below. I've left in the technical bits so don't get phased out by them.

'It is hard to nail a new corner in the cut-throat world of fashion and cosmetics, but you have to hand it to Carlos Gonzalez who has recently received a patent for colour-changing false fingernails, because he will have the designers wringing their hands with glee.

Gonzalez who works in the Department of New Materials at CIDETEC (The Centre for Technological Research in Electrochemistry) in the Basque Country has developed electrochromic false fingernails.

A plug in device controls the colour at the flick of a switch, allowing the ultra-fashion conscious to match their nails to almost any colour they wish. The system could, of course, be utilized in a variety of situations where the colour of any desired surface might be changed.

The electrochromic nail is composed of a number of layers, sandwiched between the layers are: transparent conducting oxides; a number of electrochromic polymers of differing compositions that produce the different colours; an ion-storage polymer layer that makes the colour 'permanent'; as well as an electrolyte layer that allows ionic interchange between the different polymers to take place.

The control device has a built in image-capture system that can 'sample' from any coloured material, much as the 'eyedropper' in image manipulation software can sample colour in a digital image.

All the required electronic circuitry is built into the device which is connected by electrodes to each nail. A display screen allows for the processing and modification of the information obtained by the imaging system as well as enabling the anticipated colour to be visualised prior to 'application' to the nail.'

Just imagine the results when this chameleon technology is applied to something more substantial than fingernails! A suit using it could render you invisible, or if you are Scottish, totally tartan. Football supporters could achieve instant team colours or if it was applied to children, make them instantly identifiable or invisible as you reguire. Whole buildings could be made to disappear or made to change apparent size or shape. Aeroplanes could blend perfectly into the sky or ships into the sea. Link the device to a mood or emotion detector (if one hasn't already been invented it should be) and you could intensify the whole human mating ritual. Octopuses do it, so why not us? As a mere male, think of the advantages of being able to detect those early PMT warning signals without the usual "you've never understand me" arguments.

Thank you Mr Gonzalez, on behalf of at least half of the human race!