What happens when you’ve created an extraordinarily black fabric? That’s what scientists at Cornell had to figure out once they did exactly that. How do you practically apply something so niche?

The researchers who created a fabric so dark that it makes your favorite black tee look neon turned it into a classic black cocktail dress modeled after one of nature’s most beautiful pitch black creatures, the magnificent riflebird.

Riflebirds use their ultra-velvety plumage for courtship dances. Their feathers are so black that they swallow up light, giving the birds an eerie look of a flying black void, like a bird-shaped object was Photoshopped out of the picture, and only its gorgeous, shimmering green/blue chest was left behind.

You might know Cornell University for its ornithology work, h

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