Scientists at the University of Sheffield have made glass that changes colour. They studied the Lycurgus Cup, a Roman cup from about 1,600 years ago. It looks green when light hits its surface. It looks red when light passes through it.
Scientists think Roman glass makers put very small pieces of gold and silver into the glass. These pieces change how light moves through it. They stop blue and green light from passing through, but let red and orange light pass. They also send light in different directions at the surface, making the glass look green.
Lisa Hollands led the work. She worked with Caroline Jackson, an expert on Roman glass, to make a similar basic glass. Hollands then tried different materials and ways of heating it. She found a way to get the colour change again and again, using only materials available to Roman glass makers.
British artist Elliot Walker used the new glass to make a sculpture. His work takes ideas from the story behind the Roman cup and an old Roman sculpture of Atlas. It will appear at Sheffield's Festival of the Mind. After that, it will stay at the university's Turner Museum of Glass.
