Cephalopods like octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish have the mesmerizing ability to change the color of their skin to camouflage into the surrounding environment. Multiple biological processes involving a natural pigment called xanthommatin drives this unique ability. As such, various industries are interested in using xanthommatin in products such as paint and natural sunscreen, but the pigment has been hard to research. “We needed a whole new approach to address this problem,” Leah Bushin, chemical biologist and natural products chemist at Stanford University, said in a statement. “Essentially, we came up with a way to trick the bacteria into making more of the material that we needed.”[ Related: Octopus arms are the animal kingdom’s most flexible.]