Intelligent nanostructures that report on their environment by changing color from blue to fluorescent red under mechanical, chemical, or thermal stress have been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico.

The self-assembling structures, reported in the April 19 Nature, may lower costs by reducing the need for expensive manufactured devices like stress detectors, chemical analyzers, and thermometers, according the Sandia researchers.

The devices work by converting monomers into polymers in an orderly fashion within a nanostructure.