octopus alert!

[pynchonoid]

Octopus skin yields bright discovery 

 The molecules that make octopus skin so successful as
a dynamic 
 camouflage could provide materials scientists with a
new way to make 
 super-reflective materials. Octopus, squid and
cuttlefish have developed 
 sophisticated skins so they can hide in an ocean full
of hungry 
 predators. Researchers at the Marine Biological
Laboratory in 
 Massachusetts took a close look at this skin and
identified a new group 
 of proteins with remarkable properties.  

 The team discovered that the bottom layer of octopus
skin, made up of 
 cells called leucophores, is composed of a
translucent, colourless, 
 reflecting protein. What is even more odd is that
these proteins reflect 
 all wavelengths of light that hit at any angle. The
result is a material 
 that looks startlingly white in white light, and blue
in the bluish 
 light found beneath the waves.  

 Closer inspection of a cuttlefish shows that some
parts of the skin have 
 enhanced reflective properties thanks to flat
platelets called 
 iridophores in the layer lying on top of the
leucophores. In the 
 brightest spots, the number of iridophores matches
the number of 
 leucophores one for one. 

 Nature - December 15, 2006 
 http://www.merit.unu.edu/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2879 

--Innovation & Technology Weekly of December 15, 2006 
 Maastricht Economic and social Research and training
centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) 
 European Centre for Digital Communication (EC/DC)



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