Now That Squid Can Fly, Is Anyone Safe? Tales of tiny Pacific squid going airborne are common in Japan, but scientists had never been able to document the flying invertebrates to know if they were real. Japanese scientists have finally been able to record these squid in flight and figure out exactly how they take to the air. The 8-inch neon flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) propel themselves out of the sea with a powerful jet of water, reaching speeds over 10 meters per second! Once they break the surface, they spread their wing-like flaps, and the resulting lift allows them to cover distances approaching 100 feet. This adaptation, thought to allow them to avoid predators, shows the completely independent evolution of flight in a creature that lives in the water! A truly amazing feat, which also marks it as the first known mini-Cthulu fighter pilot. Read more about the forthcoming research at io9. *Not actual squid footage.
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Now That Squid Can Fly, Is Anyone Safe?

Tales of tiny Pacific squid going airborne are common in Japan, but scientists had never been able to document the flying invertebrates to know if they were real. Japanese scientists have finally been able to record these squid in flight and figure out exactly how they take to the air.

The 8-inch neon flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) propel themselves out of the sea with a powerful jet of water, reaching speeds over 10 meters per second! Once they break the surface, they spread their wing-like flaps, and the resulting lift allows them to cover distances approaching 100 feet. This adaptation, thought to allow them to avoid predators, shows the completely independent evolution of flight in a creature that lives in the water! A truly amazing feat, which also marks it as the first known mini-Cthulu fighter pilot.

Read more about the forthcoming research at io9.

*Not actual squid footage.

Giant Squid Captured On Film Its Natural Habitat For The First Time! Whoa! The hardest part about finding a Kraken in its natural surroundings is sneaking up on it. You can’t sneak up on a Kraken. The Japanese team that captured this footage, of a comparatively tiny 3 meter giant squid (the largest ever caught was 18 meters!), did it by fitting their submersible with lights that were invisible to both squid and human eyes. Those wavelengths were captured by the camera, though … and the results are stunning. Read about the incredible work that went into capturing this amazing beast of the deep, this real-life sea monster, this ghost of the seas, at Scientific American. Check out the full video footage from ABC News. (click through if these GIFs aren’t animating on your dashboard … it’s an amazing thing to see)
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Giant Squid Captured On Film Its Natural Habitat For The First Time! Whoa! The hardest part about finding a Kraken in its natural surroundings is sneaking up on it. You can’t sneak up on a Kraken. The Japanese team that captured this footage, of a comparatively tiny 3 meter giant squid (the largest ever caught was 18 meters!), did it by fitting their submersible with lights that were invisible to both squid and human eyes. Those wavelengths were captured by the camera, though … and the results are stunning. Read about the incredible work that went into capturing this amazing beast of the deep, this real-life sea monster, this ghost of the seas, at Scientific American. Check out the full video footage from ABC News. (click through if these GIFs aren’t animating on your dashboard … it’s an amazing thing to see)
Zoom Info

Giant Squid Captured On Film Its Natural Habitat For The First Time!

Whoa!

The hardest part about finding a Kraken in its natural surroundings is sneaking up on it. You can’t sneak up on a Kraken. The Japanese team that captured this footage, of a comparatively tiny 3 meter giant squid (the largest ever caught was 18 meters!), did it by fitting their submersible with lights that were invisible to both squid and human eyes. Those wavelengths were captured by the camera, though … and the results are stunning.

Read about the incredible work that went into capturing this amazing beast of the deep, this real-life sea monster, this ghost of the seas, at Scientific American. Check out the full video footage from ABC News.

(click through if these GIFs aren’t animating on your dashboard … it’s an amazing thing to see)

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

Chromatophoric Choreography

Michael Bok set the pulsing chromatophores (the pigment-producing cells of squid and cuttlefish) of the Longfin Inshore squid to classical music, and the result is hypnotically beautiful.

I have to deduct five points for the choice of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major”, though. This is widely known to be the most annoying song in the world, and it sounds like the squid is getting married but wasn’t original to come up with anything better than the song that accompanied their high school diploma.

Assuming squid go to squid high schools. 

(via io9)

Source: io9.com

Small, Sneaky Squid Produce Big Sperm Let me interpret this figure for you. “Awww, shit, sup girl? I know you with that big tough-guy consort squid, all mating and all, but lemme just sneak in and pop this packet of super-sperm up near ya mouth while he ain’t looking so I can get my genetic material all replicated … circle of life and shit.” That’s essentially what’s happening here, down to the sneaking of extra-large sperm near a female’s “sperm-storage organ” near the mouth. Squid are some diabolical little cockblockers, aren’t they? Nature’s infinite mating strategies will never cease to amaze me. (via Discover Magazine)
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Small, Sneaky Squid Produce Big Sperm

Let me interpret this figure for you.

“Awww, shit, sup girl? I know you with that big tough-guy consort squid, all mating and all, but lemme just sneak in and pop this packet of super-sperm up near ya mouth while he ain’t looking so I can get my genetic material all replicated … circle of life and shit.”

That’s essentially what’s happening here, down to the sneaking of extra-large sperm near a female’s “sperm-storage organ” near the mouth. Squid are some diabolical little cockblockers, aren’t they? Nature’s infinite mating strategies will never cease to amaze me.

(via Discover Magazine)

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com