ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
Liquid crystals like these are common ingredients in mood rings. Molecules in a liquid usually don’t order themselves the way molecules in solids do. But, these cholesterol-like liquid-crystal molecules can loosely stack into layers even in a liquid phase. In mood rings, the temperature of your hand—not your mood—heats up or cools down the liquid crystals and changes the spacing between the crystal layers. The spacing affects how light interacts with the layers, and therefore, changing the spacing leads to shifts in color.
Ryan Latterman, a professor at Wisconsin Lutheran College, didn’t bust open a mood ring to make this gooey mess. His students accidently spilled the liquid crystals on a lab bench during class. When Latterman stirred around the liquid-crystal goo, the warmth from his finger disrupted the way the layers stacked, causing the color change.
Credit: Ryan Latterman and his Chemistry 168 class
Do science. Take pictures. Win money. Enter our photo contest here.
More Chemistry in Pictures and C&EN stories:
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on Twitter