Replicating the Color-Changing Effect of the Lycurgus Cup (Hackaday)

GRANT BRICKMAN: A 1,600-year-old cup that changes color gets a 3D-printed rival.

GRANT BRICKMAN: On Tuesday we told you Sheffield researchers recreated the Lycurgus Cup's glass. Now Hackaday has a 3D printer in the story. Ada? ▶

ADA: Grant, this is huge for filament nerds. The Lycurgus Cup is a 3rd or 4th century glass cup that looks green from the front and red lit from behind. ▶

ADA: File footage of the cup and its scene of King Lycurgus's demise. Hackaday says it survived because it ended up in church treasuries after the Western Roman Empire fell. ▶

ADA: The trick is nanoparticles of gold and silver in the glass. That's dichroic: the color depends on how the light hits it. Tiny metal, big flip. ▶

ADA: Now Lars Kool and colleagues used FDM 3D printing to make objects embedded with the same nanoparticles, and they show the effect too. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So the printer makes a glass cup that changes color. Reminds me of the station's 1987 weather map, which also changed color when you lit it wrong. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Not quite, Grant. The article says printed objects embedded with the nanoparticles show the effect. The cup itself was glass. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Printed, glass, embedded. Same thing, Greta. Moving on. ▶