Studying butterfly wings to figure out how to transfer color structurally rather than with dyes is fascinating–and needed. There have been reports of a river running blue in India from all the synthetic denim processed for clothing factories.

And I quote: “Not only are we removing the need for pigments and dyes, we’re taking out the need for all of the stuff around it to stabilize it.”

But then what would that do to the whole hand-dyed yarn industry? The new company says their colors self-assemble. How do you keep them from mixing across sections of a hank? Can you even apply it to wool? I have so many questions.