Original story by John Ross at The Australian
SCIENTISTS in the US say they are on the way to creating a “cloak of invisibility” after uncovering the secret behind the cuttlefish’s extraordinary ability to blend in with its surroundings.
The cuttlefish can make itself scarce by changing colour. Photo: Andrew Hosking
The findings, reported in the Interface Journal of The Royal Society, could trigger improvements in paints, cosmetics, consumer electronics and military outfits.
“Throughout history, people have dreamt of an ‘invisible suit’,” said co-author Kevin Kit Parker, professor of bio-engineering at Harvard University. “Nature solved that problem. Now it’s up to us to replicate this genius so, like the cuttlefish, we can avoid our predators.”
Cuttlefish, known as “chameleons of the sea”, change their colour and skin patterns instantaneously to conceal themselves from hunters such as dolphins, sharks, seals and seabirds. This is made possible by millions of tiny organs known as chromatophores, each of which contains a pouch of black, brown, red, orange or yellow pigment.
Muscles around these ink-filled sacs selectively stretch them to six times their original surface area, allowing different colours to dominate at every point of the cuttlefish’s skin and staging a colour and movement show at a resolution of several megapixels.
Scientists have assumed that chromatophores are little more than selective colour filters, containing nothing but granules of pigment. But the Harvard-led team found they are “luminescent protein nanostructures” that emit their own light.
The team, which also included scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, was able to show that the pigment granules actively absorbed and emitted light. “(Cuttlefish are) not simply modulating light through passive reflection,” said co-author Evelyn Hu.
The discovery explains how cuttlefish can maintain the intensity of their colours when their chromatophores expand, unlike balloons, which fade as they are inflated.
Professor Parker, an army reservist who has served in Afghanistan, said the findings could lead to a biologically inspired design for new types of military camouflage. Like the cuttlefish, the suits could be so adept at taking on background colours and patterns that their wearers would be difficult to see.
“Nature solved the riddle of adaptive camouflage a long time ago,” Professor Parker said. “Now the challenge is to reverse-engineer this system in a cost-efficient, synthetic system that is amenable to mass manufacturing.”
Professor Hu said it would be “extremely challenging” to replicate the cuttlefish’s mechanisms.
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