Ultrablack is a rare color that reflects less than half a percent of incoming light, a property valued in telescopes, cameras, and solar devices. Researchers at Cornell University have now created the darkest fabric ever measured, a material with an average total reflectance of just 0.13 percent. Their method draws from the magnificent riflebird, a bird-of-paradise whose feathers trap nearly all light using melanin pigments and tightly packed barbules.⁠ ⁠ Working with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the team studied how these feathers channel light inward. To replicate this, they dyed white merino wool with polydopamine, a synthetic melanin, then etched the material in a plasma chamber. The etching formed nanofibrils, tiny spiked structures that force light to bounce repeatedly until absorbed. The resulting textile stays ultrablack across a 120-degree viewing span, outperforming commercial materials that often appear shiny at an angle.⁠ ⁠ Because these nanofibrils form within the fiber...