Blue Light Turns an Octopus An Invisible Red When you’re a small, ocean-dwelling creature, your primary concern each second of your day is to not get eaten. It must be a terrifying existence. Land-lubbers have long-used camouflage as a way to avoid predators, but how would that work under the sea? Light doesn’t really penetrate below 1,000 meters, so if you live that deep your best bet might to be invisible. But how would you do that? Being clear is an option, but you’d still have a shadow, and nothing is completely clear. But what if, like the octopus above, you live in the middle-depths, where only some colors of light can penetrate? You’d have to develop a different trick. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and penetrates deeper than red light in water (that’s also why the ocean looks blue!). These creatures use that blue light to go invisible in the middle-depths. By turning on red pigment cells on command, they are able to turn black when that blue light hits them. This is because a solely blue light source will not be reflected by red pigments (review how color works if you’re confused), making the octopi look black and invisible. Cool trick. (via ScienceNOW)
Pop-upView Separately

Blue Light Turns an Octopus An Invisible Red

When you’re a small, ocean-dwelling creature, your primary concern each second of your day is to not get eaten. It must be a terrifying existence.

Land-lubbers have long-used camouflage as a way to avoid predators, but how would that work under the sea? Light doesn’t really penetrate below 1,000 meters, so if you live that deep your best bet might to be invisible. But how would you do that? Being clear is an option, but you’d still have a shadow, and nothing is completely clear.

But what if, like the octopus above, you live in the middle-depths, where only some colors of light can penetrate? You’d have to develop a different trick.

Blue light has a shorter wavelength and penetrates deeper than red light in water (that’s also why the ocean looks blue!). These creatures use that blue light to go invisible in the middle-depths.

By turning on red pigment cells on command, they are able to turn black when that blue light hits them. This is because a solely blue light source will not be reflected by red pigments (review how color works if you’re confused), making the octopi look black and invisible.

Cool trick.

(via ScienceNOW)

Source: news.sciencemag.org

368 Notes/ Hide

  1. oreninci reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  2. stpetefreeskool reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. haheh reblogged this from sunshinessilhouette
  4. stinguish reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. craftytrickyjellyjam reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  6. naywong reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  7. sunshinessilhouette reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  8. crashtheman reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  9. missatile reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  10. This was featured in #Science
  11. jtotheizzoe posted this

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus