WEBVTT - Cuttlefish Camouflage Is an Energy-Efficient Superpower

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.680
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel bomb here cuttlefish, these cephalopods, known for their

0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.120
<v Speaker 1>stunning ability to instantly change color and texture to blend

0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.840
<v Speaker 1>into their surroundings, have another newly discovered trick. Researchers have

0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.720
<v Speaker 1>found that these squidgy creatures can freeze their camouflage palette

0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:24.639
<v Speaker 1>and lock it in place for up to an hour

0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:28.720
<v Speaker 1>without any energy consuming input from their main nervous system.

0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.680
<v Speaker 1>That superpower allows them to hold their disguise for long

0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.160
<v Speaker 1>periods to avoid being detected and thus to avoid being eaten.

0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.879
<v Speaker 1>It also helps them snatch their own prey, as they

0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.839
<v Speaker 1>can remain essentially invisible as they lie in wait. The finding,

0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:44.800
<v Speaker 1>published in the journal I Science, not only reveals yet

0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.559
<v Speaker 1>another clever strategy of these ocean floor dwelling masters of disguise,

0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.200
<v Speaker 1>It also lends further guidance for engineers hoping to borrow

0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.080
<v Speaker 1>from the animal's tricks to develop new technologies, such as

0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.480
<v Speaker 1>maps that can spring into three dimensions and soft bodied

0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.840
<v Speaker 1>robots that could say around a human leg to provide support.

0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.119
<v Speaker 1>As with many discoveries, scientists stumbled upon this one nearly

0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.560
<v Speaker 1>by accident. The researchers were working at the Marine Biological

0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.280
<v Speaker 1>Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. They were trying to trace

0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.640
<v Speaker 1>how the cuttlefish's nervous system directs its skin to transform

0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.200
<v Speaker 1>its three D texture within seconds to blend into the

0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.920
<v Speaker 1>background of say kelp or a rock. When they sliced

0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.199
<v Speaker 1>through one of the two main nerves that runs along

0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.640
<v Speaker 1>the side of a cuttlefish, they expected the animal would

0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.639
<v Speaker 1>lose its camouflage on the corresponding side of that nerve,

0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.120
<v Speaker 1>but instead, the three dimensional texture provided by nodes on

0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.880
<v Speaker 1>the skin of the cuttlefish, called papela, stayed intact. We

0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.480
<v Speaker 1>spoke with Trevor Wardill, co author of the study and

0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.959
<v Speaker 1>a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge. He said, it

0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.320
<v Speaker 1>was really quite surprising. In fact, when we first saw it. Generally,

0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.840
<v Speaker 1>when you cut input to a muscle, it just relaxes

0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.760
<v Speaker 1>and that's the end of it. We thought we did

0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.280
<v Speaker 1>something wrong, but repeat takes of the procedures showed the

0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.160
<v Speaker 1>phenomenon was no fluke. The animals, by the way, we're

0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.600
<v Speaker 1>not killed by the procedure and we're a to continue

0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:04.080
<v Speaker 1>swimming and feeding in a tank at the MBL facility,

0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.480
<v Speaker 1>the team's finding is the first time this kind of

0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.560
<v Speaker 1>lock or catch muscle, as it's known, has been detected

0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.920
<v Speaker 1>in any cephalopod. Wardell says they believe it's similar to

0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.640
<v Speaker 1>a kind of locking mechanism used by clams and muscles

0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.280
<v Speaker 1>to seal shut without expending energy. For the cuttlefish, which,

0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.320
<v Speaker 1>as any wild animal, relies on every calorie it consumes

0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.440
<v Speaker 1>to survive, having a way to maintain its disguise without

0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:29.360
<v Speaker 1>constantly pumping out energy is an ingenious survival strategy. Like

0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:31.640
<v Speaker 1>an e reader that only uses energy when you turn

0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.280
<v Speaker 1>the page, you expend way less energy than with a

0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:39.240
<v Speaker 1>tablet that's constantly refreshing its screen. The researchers suspect that squid,

0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.160
<v Speaker 1>which hang out in the ocean's upper water columns, may

0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.440
<v Speaker 1>have the same ability. Squid don't transform the texture of

0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.280
<v Speaker 1>their skin as cuttlefish do, likely because the increase in

0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.840
<v Speaker 1>drag would make such rough surfaces more of a liability

0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.880
<v Speaker 1>than an advantage, but these cephalopods blend in by shifting

0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.119
<v Speaker 1>the ear doesn't quality of their skin, effectively changing how

0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.440
<v Speaker 1>the sun's light reflects off of their bodies. Observations have

0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.560
<v Speaker 1>shown that squid even use their eardescence to hypnotize prey

0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.000
<v Speaker 1>such as crabs in their sites. In investigating the cuttlefish's neurotransmitters,

0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.480
<v Speaker 1>they found striking similarities to neural circuits used by squid

0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.240
<v Speaker 1>to manipulate their eridescence, so they suspect squid may have

0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.200
<v Speaker 1>a similar ability to lock in a certain air doescn

0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.679
<v Speaker 1>to look. Wardell said, the same nerve controls appeared to

0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.680
<v Speaker 1>control papela in cuttlefish and aridescence in squid. We suspect

0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.280
<v Speaker 1>they must have a common ancestor for this control system,

0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.079
<v Speaker 1>but the jury is still out. Word that scientists have

0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.160
<v Speaker 1>uncovered yet another neat cephalopod trick is exciting news to

0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.840
<v Speaker 1>people like James Pickle, and assistant professor in the Department

0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.840
<v Speaker 1>of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania.

0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.960
<v Speaker 1>Pickle's research group recently borrowed from previous studies on the

0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.200
<v Speaker 1>cephalopods to mimic the cuttlefish's quick changing textural camouflage in

0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.840
<v Speaker 1>synthetic form using silicon and fiber mesh rings. He envisions

0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.400
<v Speaker 1>building on the cuttlefish's dynamic texture changing ability to generate

0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.040
<v Speaker 1>a GPS map that could lie flat in a vehicle

0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.200
<v Speaker 1>and then, upon command, spring into three dimensions to offer

0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.000
<v Speaker 1>a vivid, fully contoured view of the driver's route. Pickle

0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.680
<v Speaker 1>also predicts endless medical applications that could borrow from the cephalopod,

0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.520
<v Speaker 1>including soft robots that could instantly bend and conform to

0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:19.719
<v Speaker 1>mold around a patient's injury, or even envelope and support

0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.680
<v Speaker 1>a beating heart. To accomplish those visions, Pickle foreseas taking

0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.680
<v Speaker 1>inspiration and guidance from the cuttlefish and then advancing it.

0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.919
<v Speaker 1>He conceives, for example, of developing individual artificial papale that

0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.520
<v Speaker 1>could not only be activated or deactivated to match a surrounding,

0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.360
<v Speaker 1>but also be prompted to take on a specific shape

0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.960
<v Speaker 1>to create a surface that's even more fine tuned. The

0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:43.080
<v Speaker 1>latest research on the cuttle fish was funded by the

0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.240
<v Speaker 1>Air Force Office of Scientific Research. War Dale points out

0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.240
<v Speaker 1>that the military's interest in the animals goes beyond camouflage.

0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:53.040
<v Speaker 1>He said, they're also interested because of material science. You

0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.719
<v Speaker 1>can imagine you can take a very flat structure and

0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.800
<v Speaker 1>by activating it form a three dimensional shape. That ability

0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.120
<v Speaker 1>could be really helpful if you to transport a structure

0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.839
<v Speaker 1>flat to a location and then expanded out. Pickle said

0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.120
<v Speaker 1>nature has already begun the design process, so we don't

0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.599
<v Speaker 1>have to start at zero, but ultimately we want to

0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:18.880
<v Speaker 1>go beyond what even these amazing animals can do. Today's

0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.920
<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Amanda Onion and produced by Tristan McNeil.

0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.599
<v Speaker 1>For more on this and lots of other animal topics,

0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:38.479
<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet to stuff works dot com