With a twitch of its muscles, the tiny, venomous greater blue-ringed octopus, native to the warm waters of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans, changes the iridescent circles on its surface according to its intentions. … A group of UC Irvine engineers was so intrigued by this survival mechanism … that they created a device that recreates it. … “I like to think of it as bio-inspiration,” says Alon Gorodetsky, an award-winning professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the paper’s lead author. … The Irvine scientists’ octopus-inspired device resembles a small, four-layered sandwich, says co-lead author Preeta Pratakshya, who recently received her Ph.D. from UCI’s Department of Chemistry. Read More