Researchers have examined how a small aquatic animal camouflages, and could use this information to improve discretion in military operations.
The cuttlefish, which has been nicknamed the "chameleon of the sea," can change color and texture to match its surroundings; researchers looked at the biological mechanism that allows them to do this, a Harvard University news release reported.
"Nature solved the riddle of adaptive camouflage a long time ago," Kevin Kit Parker, Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, said in the news release. "Now the challenge is to reverse-engineer this system in a cost-efficient, synthetic system that is amenable to mass manufacturing."
The information could be used to improve military camouflage as well as " paints, cosmetics, and consumer electronics," the news release reported.
"Neurally controlled, pigmented organs called chromatophores" allow the cuttlefish to change its appearance to match its surroundings.
In order to camouflage the animal uses a leucophore that scatters and reflects light; the iridophore which is a thin stack of films that also work to reflect light; and the chromatophore.
"Chromatophores were previously considered to be pigmentary organs that acted simply as selective color filters," Leila F. Deravi, a research associate in bioengineering at Harvard SEAS, said in the news release. "But our results suggest that they play a more complex role; they contain luminescent protein nanostructures that enable the cuttlefish to make quick and elaborate changes in its skin pigmentation."
When the cuttlefish actuates its colors the chromatophores expand allowing the surface appearance to change up to 500 percent.
"The cuttlefish uses an ingenious approach to materials composition and structure, one that we have never employed in our engineered displays," coauthor Evelyn Hu, Tarr-Coyne Professor of Applied Physics and of Electrical Engineering at SEAS, said in the news release. "It is extremely challenging for us to replicate the mechanisms that the cuttlefish uses. For example, we cannot yet engineer materials that have the elasticity to expand 500 times in surface area. And were we able to do so, the richness of color of the expanded and unexpanded material would be dramatically different-think of stretching and shrinking a balloon. The cuttlefish may have found a way to compensate for this change in richness of color by being an 'active' light emitter (fluorescent), not simply modulating light through passive reflection."
Understanding the cuttlefish's camouflage techniques could help save lives in the future.
"Throughout history, people have dreamed of having an 'invisible suit,'" Parker said. "Nature solved that problem, and now it's up to us to replicate this genius so, like the cuttlefish, we can avoid our predators."
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