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Lydia Mathger
Scientists are studying how squid and other cephalopods change color and pattern of their skin to blend in with their environment in hopes of creating next-generation camouflage for the military. Shown here are chromatophores (large brown, red and yellow structures) and iridophores (pink iridescent splotches) in th esquid Loligo pealeii.
The ability of octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish to instantaneously change the color and pattern of their skin to blend in with their surroundings has caught the eye of the U.S. military. Its goal is a new generation of high-tech camouflage.
The Office of Naval Research has awarded $6 million to a team of U.S. scientists to conduct the basic research required to make the squid-like camo. Precisely how the military will use the technology is classified, noted Roger Hanlon, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
One can imagine, though, everything from tanks draped in a skin that constantly updates its look so that it blends in with its surroundings as it rolls through a patchwork of agricultural fields or a uniform that allows soldiers to disappear on crowded urban streets as easily as they do in swampy forests.
Research approach
Hanlon and colleagues plan to extract the "operating principles" that make the skin of squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish observant, adaptive and responsive to the environment. The information they gather from looking at interactions of pigments and reflectors at the cellular and molecular levels will be used to inform the engineers and scientists building the materials that emulate these properties.
"This is the bio-inspired approach to engineering," Hanlon noted in email to me Monday from Turkey where he is on a research dive. "Let the animals guide some of our work. Animal systems are always more elegant and sophisticated than most folks give them credit for."
Another branch of the research effort builds on a 2008 discovery by Hanlon and colleagues Lydia Mathger and Steven Roberts that the skin of these marine animals contains opsins, the same type of light-sensing proteins that function in eyes.
The team aims to figure out where the opsins are located in the skin, and where and how they send the light information to change body and skin patterns.
"The most exciting possibility is that the opsins may sense light and inform the skin to change (or) refine some aspect of its pattern without sending information back to the brain," said Hanlon, who is also a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University.
Building new materials
It will be up to the team's engineers to try and emulate the skin of the cephalopods, as this class of marine animals is known, using new so-called metamaterials, materials that blur the line between material and machine.
Naomi Halas, an expert on nano-optics at Rice University in Texas and principal investigator on the grant, said the group plans to use patterns of organized nanostructures to create sheets of materials that can change colors quickly — like the pixels of a high-definition television screen — but also see light in the same way that squids do, according to a press release.
A key component of the material will be unique clusters of nanomaterials discovered by Rice chemist Stephan Link, a co-investigator on the grant. Halas said Link's materials are very sensitive to changes in their environment and can more easily change colors than other nanomaterials.
Beyond military
According to Hanlon, this work isn't just for secretive military applications. Industry and society may also benefit from the effort, which will reveal knowledge about combining pigments and reflectors.
"Some (of the applications) are as simple as heating and cooling things by absorbing or reflecting radiation," he said. "Detroit can make cars that change color; fashion designers can make dresses that change pattern — highlight of the cocktail party!"
How would you use this technology? Weigh in with a comment below.
More stories on cephalopods and disguise
- Hawaiian squid carries a built in light
- Astonishing octopus is master of disguise
- Get set for invisible war machines
- Octopuses walk on 2 arms to get by predators
- Some sharks can become invisible, study says
- The 'why' of a leopard's spots
- Lizards' camouflage reveals evolution in action
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
Ok girly comments!
Useless I know, but I can see this having a lot of interest on movie sets and videos and the likes for the Entertainment Industry.
Ok un-girly comments!
I'm a nerd...
Actually, it was the Kilngons and Romulans that had cloaks....
Kirk and company stole one and used it on the Enterprise, and Riker had worked on a version for the Federation on a ship before he was on the Enterprise D.
Change the color of your appliances or furniture without buying new stuff.
Increase the creepiness of stalkers.
Be any racial group you want (at least skin color) with subdermal injections.
The girls I know wouldn't go for anything that took away an excuse to go shopping.
Gotta agree.
I would put on a full suit of the stuff, have a few beers then run around the neighborhood playing "Ninja Guy". Duh.
And with skin injections, I could just go around naked and make it look like I have no jeans and a t-shirt.
I would also apply it to my spaceship and zip around without being seen by those pesky people with shaky, out of focus cameras.
Then I could paint my whole house with it so the men in black won't be able to find me. Wait - they're here now! Gotta go!
Well, if I went naked and made my lower half look like jeans, peope could still tell i was naked.
This is nothing new, they call it the Al Gore look
Huh??
I want a real Rorschach mask :)
Maybe they should come up with a way to make the fascist US military disappear then maybe there would be money for health care and things that average people now lack. Oh and maybe they can make that black butt hole in the white house disappear as well!
The military only follows the orders passed to it by congress. Perhaps you'd prefer the U.S. did NOT have a military and simply bowed to other country's wishes at every turn? Of course, if you really feel that the U.S. has things so wrong, you COULD always move to China, maybe even Iran. I hear they LOVE people that publicly denounce their governments, they even have special camps for them there!
10-1 you're not even a legal US citizen and you're on welfare here anyway. That way, without a military, we'd always have more money to spend on you and your brood, right? But we do spend our money on a military because people as hateful and prejudiced as you shouldn't be allowed to breed anyway.
I'm sure I'll probably get banned for a few days for saying this, but the hate you spew is the first thing shown on the comments section and it certainly shouldn't be!
Tom, agree whole heartedly. Most of those that denounce the Military do so out of ignorance and are too much of pu$$ies to sacrifice or contribute for their country anyway. Besides, based on his comments and user name, he is probably a dirty illegal alien that has lost his way and expects everyone else who is an American to pay for his misadventures. As an "Average person" who has served in the military for over 18 years, I love hearing idiots like him espouse how "fascist" we are, all the while not quite realizing that our military has made such ignorant and dumba$$ rants possible and safe.
My advice to you Carlos is to take your BS and carry your dumba$$ back to whatever stinky country you and your deadbeat family came from. And be sure to thank all of us taxpayers along the way for supporting leeches like yourself who expect healthcare and welfare for free while true citizens continue to give selflessly.
Anyone in America can have free health care. Join the Military.
Carlos,
Please, feel free to come by any bar frequented by military folks like myself. I'll make sure we all disappear for you. I mean, its hard to see through bandages.
You're welcome for the freedom to be a complete and utter moron.
There'll always be one or two of them out there; people who forget that they wouldn't have the freedom to act the fool if it weren't for the servicemen who fought and died, and others who served, to keep those freedoms. I guess people like us bleed so they can breed.
TROLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!
Too many L's?? Never.
I want a car that changes not just color, but it's brand, as well! That way, never out of style at any event!
Perhaps on a genetic level they could combine this DNA with the DNA of an invasive species like the Emerald tree borer so it would make it more sensitive to various wave lengths of sun light. This could inflict genetic damage on the pest helping to inhibit its spread. Manipulate enough populations and release them, and eventually you may achieve some success. I just used the Emerald tree borer as an example, but really any pest, invasive, or otherwise could be a target.
Do you really think giving a perfect camouflage to a pest could be a good idea???
Office Of Naval Research . . . still at it after all these years.
http://ufopartisan.blogspot.com/2010/08/roswell-d-day-and-titanium-industry.html
http://ufopartisan.blogspot.com/2011/01/humans-aliens-their-conquest-of-flight.html
That is awesome.
I think they are wanting guinea pigs to experiment on human camouflage.
Just like the "OCTO-CAMO" suit from MGS4! (Metal Gear Solid 4)
This is just TOO COOL!! :O
Next stop, nanomachines for everybody!
My trailer will match my hair color!
But will it be able to make me look 'buff' when I'm in the buff?
Have house colors change from DARK (retain heat in winter) to LIGHT (reflect heat in summer).
That was my first thought as well for an excellent application. Also, light car color in the summer. You could even link the color change to the internal temperature of the car to help keep it cool / warm as needed.
Better change the name to something other than "squid camoflage" before issuing it to the marines. As for me, I'm seeing HALO armor coated in this, or F-22s and -35s that cannot be seen with the eye any better than they can on radar or infrared.
This is very cool, it seems with enough information and knowledge and smart thinking you could even change a red state to a blue state!!!
Or Blue to Red. ;-D
How about green independent?
Green has been hijacked by the Libs. Red mixed with blue makes purple, which has been taken by the Gays. Grey is too boring, so how about golden, or better yet, calico, to celebrate the diversity of independent thinkers. ;-)
Sounds like a rainbow of diversity. Ooops, rainbow is also gay.
Is brown taken? Kinda boring, though. Oh, that's UPS.
White? No, not politically correct enough.
Wouldn't Multicam cover all the colors? Easy to keep looking clean, too.
Yeah, but that might seem too right wing.
So do it in pastels. :-D Oh, and I've seen squid camoflage; the base naval security group wears it. It's a mottled blue.
Really? An application for private sector. What a load of crap. That was just some lame rationalization to wasting money.
FYI 30 sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan were paid $1.3. Million dollars to reenlist for 4 years. That $56,000 each. Nice huh
Your point being? The Selective Re-enlistment Bonus(SRB) you mention has been a part of our military since it's inception. It's designed to keep people in the service to man critical ratings. We spend millions training a nuke plant operator on a ship or sub. When their 6 years are up, they could easily take that knowledge out into the civilian world and find much much better paying jobs. It would be stupid to waste all that training simply because whiners like yourself think it's a waste of money.
Btw, technically, they are re-enlisting for 6 years not 4. They simply are agreeing to drop 2 years from the first 6 year enlistment. And oh yes, I received a $20,000 bonus when I first re-enlisted in '95. That $56k you cite is before taxes. After tax it's split in half with the sailor receiving half the amount then, the rest is spread out over the next 6 years.
Thanks for making that point, Chris. I received a fairly sizeable reenlistment bonus back in 1976, because I was in a career field that was chronically undermanned. Uncle Sam had gone to a lot of time and trouble training me and my peers, and hoped that I and they would go career. Enough of us did to help make our aircraft a resounding success during Desert Storm, despite its age. As for this project, efficient camoflage under variable conditions has always been elusive. Just look at a plane passing overhead and imagine the advantage a ground-attack plane would have if its undersides actually matched the conditions of the surrounding sky, rather than being darker. That alone would be worth the effort, as would truly effective camoflage coverings.
Thank you folks for serving, and the reenlistment investment was well spent.
And thank you, Tony.
Agreed, you made me smile with your thank you, Tony.
A reenlistment bonus. Get off the gravy train already. There is not a job in the private sector that would pay anyone these percentages for continual employment ,not one.
The military has almost all of there extra duties done by contractors. Please after taxes. You get everything for free food healthcare retirement. Military is nothing more then entitlement club..
An entitlement club where you get shot at for low pay.
The reenlistment bonus is a way to fill a career field that rarely can be kept full for very long. The services could shift people into that field involuntarily, but then they would be much more likely to lose those people in the next four years. It is smarter to give people an incentive to stay there. A company would pay people more to take the job and stay there, but the services are not allowed to do so. Your assumption that contractors can fill those fields is incorrect; in fact, it is cheeper for the services to pay the bonuses than it is to pay contractors, especially in war zones. And yes, the troops do get 'free' food, and healthcare, and retirement, but you have to get through a minimum of twenty years of service in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to get there, and cannot affor to pay for healthcare on service pay- not to mention figuring out what to pay the doctor pulling mortar fragments or a bullet out of your body. We serve because we believe in what we do, and yes, it can be very steady employment- or it can end very suddenly, with that last of 'entitlements': a headstone, and a flag to drape your coffin.
And besides, Jake, why would the military spend all that money to train someone just to let them go in six years? Wouldn't you want them to keep the investment they have already made?
If you bought a house, would you not put any more money into it? If they roof needed replacing would you just figure you already have the house, why put more money into it?
First of all only 8 % of military are ever in combat . You will find the rest of them in the rear with the gear.
Second , critical skills should be treated just like the combat soldier are treated " stop loss"
I bet you would not like that. You push button warriors. Really think your in the military you got a 9 to 5 job.......Please!
I find the phrase "thank you for your service" to be down right naive. I prefer " welcome home brother"
Welcome home brothers.
-Moving graphics on clothes.
-One-time paint job for cars. Choose your own colors.
-Coat my U-haul truck with it, program it to look like the night deposit box of your local bank.
-Scare little kids by having it change to a nice toothy shark smile as they walk past.
-Be able to hit a button that causes it to cycle thru every obnoxious color. Never lose track of ur car in a parking lot again.
As for the use in the private sector I'm going to guess that when this stuff hits the market it's going to have a hefty price tag on it.. Then stop and think about the ones that get a hold of it with criminal intent. What a heck of a thing for law enforcement to have to try and catch..
And how much does this project cost? Could we use that part of the military budget to maybe get our military families off of food stamps? Or maybe better protective equipment for our troops who are at war right this very minute. And while Im on my rant, how about some kind of jamming device so that our enemy troops cant call up google earth and zero in on our own troop's positions? Better ways to spend money? Important, yeah. Priority, nah!
Well something simple, but what about screens. It would enable TV, computer, and phone screens to be very thin and flexible while still maintaining high definition.
Pink would be nice for our gay soldiers.
How about green tights, tan ballet shoes, and green tutus. The bad guys would laugh themselves to death.
: )
There are some experiments using nano technology to create solar chameleon paints taking place now in the commercial sector. That could be very interesting if nano dyes or fibers could be developed. The uniform could camouflage the soldier or marine and generate some of the electricity required for a communicator, etc.