onthemedia:

What a squid does when it listens to Cypress Hill.

(via Backyard Brains » Insane in the Chromatophores)

Insane in the Membrane (Potential)

I’ll be over here, flipping out due to the sheer awesomeness of this.

In case you’re curious about what’s actually going on here, allow me to sprinkle some context on ya.

Nerve signals, whether they lead to squid chromatophore stimulation or muscle contraction, are essentially electric signals. Not in the sense that there are electrons flowing through your nerves like the wires in your house, but rather because of some very nifty ion gradients and voltages across cell membranes.

When an audio signal is converted to an electric signal, basically what happens inside a microphone, that electric voltage can be applied to tissues! The resulting voltage changes can trigger electrochemical signals, just like the chromatophores you see above.

What’s that? Not enough awesome for you? Well here’s a cockroach leg being stimulated by the Beastie Boys.

EDIT: This post has garnered quite a bit of attention, which is to be expected since it’s so awesome, but many people are a bit confused about a few squidly details. The squid are not alive when this is filmed. This is dissected tissue from humanely anesthetized and sacrificed squid (which are a common model for neural studies). The voltages used are less than a household battery on your tongue, so even if they were alive, they would not feel much pain.

(via theweekmagazine)

Source: news.backyardbrains.com

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