Rapid Adaptive Camouflage in Cephalopods: Linking Science and Art to Bio-inspired Materials and Engineering

McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium (MDEA)

Rapid adaptive camouflage in cephalopods: linking science and art to bio-inspired materials and engineering

Featuring Roger T. Hanlon, Marine Biological Laboratory, Program in Sensory Physiology & Behavior, Woods Hole, Mass.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University

11:30 a.m. presentation

Abstract: Nature has evolved elegant solutions for manipulating ambient light to create patterns and coloration for a wide range of functions such as communication, camouflage and thermoregulation. Nowhere is the diversity and speed of change in body patterning better developed than in the cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish). First, I will briefly mention visual sensing of the ambient light field and subsequent control of skin patterning. I will illustrate how body patterns are used functionally in the behavioral ecology of various cephalopods. Then I will describe various details of the biophotonic structures of the skin that produce such remarkable visual diversity, with emphasis on the principles involved and how they might provide bio-inspired approaches to materials science and engineering.

Bio: Hanlon is senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.; director, Program in Sensory Physiology & Behavior at MBL; and professor (MBL) of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University. He is a diving biologist who uses digital imagery (stills, video, hyperspectral) to analyze rapid adaptive camouflage and communication in cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish) and fish. He was trained in marine sciences at Florida State University and University of Miami, and studied sensory ecology as a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University, UK. For nearly 20 years he worked as tenured faculty at the Marine Biomedical Institute (Univ. of Texas Medical Branch). In 1995, he moved to the MBL as founding director of the Marine Resources Center, where he was until 2003. He has hosted and mentored more than 30 graduate students and postdocs during his career.

Recently, his laboratory has focused on a multidisciplinary effort to quantify animal camouflage and determine its anatomical mechanisms, touching subjects as varied as visual perception, psychophysics, neuroscience, behavioral ecology, skin ultrastructure, spectrometry, image analyses, computer vision and art. Laboratory research involves live-animal, hypothesis-driven experimentation on several key aspects of the adaptive camouflage and signaling systems. More than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published on these and related subjects. Collaborations with materials scientists and engineers aim to develop new classes of materials that change appearance based on the pigments and reflectors in cephalopod skin. Active public outreach featuring these charismatic marine animals has been conducted recently with NOVA, BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, TEDx, and the New York Times.

Additional information: A pizza lunch will be provided.