For centuries, militaries have looked for ways to seamlessly blend into combat sceneries. But the need to camouflage has never been more urgent than in the era of high-tech detection. With modern heat-scanning methods, keeping soldiers safe on the battlefield has become particularly challenging. But scientists have risen to the occasion. As Engineering professor and team leader Alon Gorodtsky of the University of California, Irvine, put it: (QUOTE) "We were inspired both by science fiction and science fact." And even though digital camouflage is not a new concept, recent research fields like biomimetics have allowed engineers to give soldiers the advantage of an unpretentious mollusk: to disappear…