I’ve discovered science reporter Robert Krulwich’s National Public Radio website, “Krulwich wonders,” and it’s a buffet of toothsome sciencey tidbits. Here’s a nice video he posted (and narrated) about cuttlefish camouflage, and their physiological and behavioral attempts to hide in their environment.
Also, be sure to read Krulwich’s account of how the Nobel Prize medals of two German laureates—James Franck and Max von Laue—were dissolved in a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids (“aqua regia”) in Niels Bohr’s Copenhagen lab prevent them from being detected by the Nazis. It was a capital crime to take gold (and Nobel medals are 23-carat gold) out of Germany. After the war the gold was re-precipitated and the medals re-cast.
Astonishing. I could watch them for hours.
They’re really Vorlon pets on temporary loan. Treat the Cephalopoda nice ’cause the First Ones will return. Word.
Krulwich is the co-host of the Radiolab show at NPR. The other host, Jad Abumrad, won a MacArthur fellowship this year! That show is highly recommended listening.
I didn’t know he had a _website_. Thanks!
What’s next? Cats on Pharyngula?
It’s WAR, I tell ya! WAR.
Nothing a little genetic engineering can’t fix.
Kittlehfish.
Kittlehfish, now that’s a pet I’d be interested in.
Can
hasfishburger????Colour blind camouflage? I SMELL A GAP! Therefore, CREATIONISM FTW!
Superb video…nature is the ultimate science fiction.
Amazing but they did not “learn” to camouflage they evolved!
I’m not crazy about Krulwich’s style. He tries to be too cutesy and it distracts from (or even misrepresents) the science.
Well there’s a Nobel prize in finding the answer to that one! Incredible…
OT:
FWIW, it’s Oct. 21st here in Hobbiton.
Harold Camping’s second prediction, that the world would end today, hasn’t come to pass.
feel free to resume your lives as normal.
😛
It’s not midnight yet, so I’ll still be chewing on my finger nails for a few more hours…
/Sepia/ …. met one on a scuba dive off Tenerife. It looked me in the eye, and I thought “Yes, I’m your lunch”. The Sepia agreed.
I love cuttlefish!
Cheers,
Norm.
I used to volunteer for the Shedd Aquarium in the invertebrate section. Behind the scenes they kept many inverts in quarantine, to make sure they didn’t die from being collected, before they put them on display. The aquarist once had cuttlefish there and I always marveled at their camouflage abilities; feeding them was also a treat!
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