Silverskin

Silverskin is an advanced doped polymer created before the start of the New Dark Ages. Although it would now be impossible to design a material with such complex behaviours, the process for its synthesis is relatively well known. What isn't so widely known is that one of its constituents, a catalyst euphemistically known as Docyl-polysynthestrate is in fact a slightly modified serum variant.

Silverskin is usually sprayed onto a fabric of some kind, and has an irridescent, silvery appearance. Its molecules are excited in different ways by different frequencies of light, altering its opacity. This means that a room with silverskin-coated windows or vents will allow white light to shine in, bright enough for the average human to comfortably read. Other light sources inside the room, or brighter sunlight outside, will cause the silverskin layer to become more opaque, while coloured light is automatically compensated for. This dynamic filtering also allows transmits or reflects varying levels of infra-red radiation, suitable to keep the inside temperature at a stable, comfortable level. The desired light and heat levels can be adjusted at the time of manufacture by adding trace elements of platinum and niobium to the reagent mix; although modern science doesn't know why these two elements are significant.

Radiation harmful to humans, including UV and higher, is either reflected (in hot environments), or absorbed to warm the silverskin membrane (when the room is too cold).