Navy Grant to Fund Probe of Squid and Octopus Camouflage

Octopuses and squid are big brained species that use much of their mental powers to adjust their own appearances. This remarkable ability to camouflage on the fly has inspired the Office of Naval Research to award $7.5 million to Duke University and two collaborating institutions to learn more about how the animals do it.

Participating researchers plan to build an underwater version of the fictional "Star Trek" virtual reality "holodeck." They will also go out on expeditions both to collect animals for study and to document their surroundings in unprecedented detail. They will even take their investigations down to the molecular level where the skin can change its own optical properties.

"We need to know how the different animals we're going to look at actually see the world," said Sonke Johnsen, the Duke associate professor of biology who is principal investigator for this five-year Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) study. "What is the nature of their vision? How sharp is it, how quick does it respond to changes, and can they see colors?

"Especially at the surface, where waves are moving and water quality is changing and the sun's positions are shifting, we need to measure how light fields around them change. We also want to see how they behave and change in different environments. That's where the holodeck will come in."

The cubical holodeck will be built by engineer and research oceanographer Jules Jaffe, one of two participating researchers at the University of California at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The aquarium-like chamber will be big enough to enclose the largest animals studied. Its walls will enable Duke and Scripps researchers to duplicate the changeable hues, lighting and optical conditions of the open ocean.

Cephalopods, the hundreds of different species classified as either octopuses or squids, are known to self-adjust skin colors and patterns in their effort to remain unnoticeable to predators or prey. Some can respond to the kinds of polarizing effects that humans need special sunglasses to discern. Some bioluminescent species even emit their own light, which they use to eliminate shadows that would give away their silhouettes.

"We will be able to change the colors, resolution, speed and everything else so that we can step inside their visual world under laboratory conditions," Johnsen said. "We will be able to show them natural scenes, but then also scenes that have been altered in different ways. The holodeck will be like a virtual reality machine for the ocean. In the world of marine biology we know of no other like it."

The other collaborator at Scripps will be Dariusz Stramski, a professor of oceanography who is a world expert on measuring rapidly changing light fields.

At the University of California at Santa Barbara, post-doctoral fellow Alison Sweeney, a former graduate student of Johnsen, will work with Daniel Morse, a professor of molecular genetics and biochemistry, to study proteins that can alter the animals' coloration. These pigments "can self-assemble and disassemble, more or less under the control of their nervous systems," Johnsen said. "And then those control how the animals look."

Meanwhile, a separate MURI led by the University of Texas at Austin will work toward goals so similar that some participants will be going on each other's research trips. In the case of the Duke-led group, that involves expeditions to islands off California and work on the Pacific island of Palau. The Texas group will head to the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico. Collectively, the two efforts will receive about $15 million, Johnsen added.

So why is the military interested? "Obviously, you can think that camouflage is a good thing to have," Johnsen said. "You would like to be able to hide. But the work we do is at a basic, fundamental level. We won't do it with a particular application in mind. The military for ages has funded fairly basic research."

A second MURI award announced May 8 also has a Duke scientist as its principal investigator. Electrical and computer engineering professor David R. Smith is leading a study on "transformation optical metamaterials" funded by the U.S, Army Research Office. Smith's group works on "metamaterials" that can bend light to make an object appear invisible.

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Giant Squids Land at Dover Air Force Base

A 326th Airlift Squadron aircrew landed at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 11 with two giant squids in its cargo compartment.

The two sea creatures were transported in a C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft from Europe and will be delivered to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The female preserved specimen, which will become the largest on display in the United States, measures 24 and a half feet long. The male is 9 feet long.

"My daughter is going to think I am the coolest dad ever," said Air Force Master Sgt. Phillip Vicker, a 326th AS loadmaster whose mission was to load and balance all of the cargo, including the squids, onto the aircraft.

Even though none of the aircrew or passengers could physically see the squids, Vicker said, everyone could still see the long box labeled with 'giant squids' stickers.

"They were really pumped up about it; they kept asking, 'Are those really squids in there?'" he said. "Even we didn't believe it when we first saw it on the cargo manifest."

The shipping container for the pair of squids was not as long as the actual bodies inside. The project manager at the Smithsonian, Elizabeth Musteen, said this was because the specimens' arms and tentacles were folded over the top of their mantles. However, when on display, the female will be fully expanded horizontally, and the male will be encased in a vertical state, she added.

"These specimens, brought up in deep-sea fishing nets off the coast of northern Spain, are expected to be a main attraction," Musteen said.

The giant squids will make their public debut Sept. 27, when the Smithsonian opens its new Sant Ocean Hall, an exhibition area designed to support ocean education.

"I can't wait to take the family to the display," said Air Force Maj. Mark Chagaris, one of the C-17 pilots who brought the deep ocean dwellers to the United States. "I can say, 'Your daddy helped bring that over here.'"

After unloading the squids from the C-17, four 436th Aerial Port Squadron airmen prepared the squids for transport to the Smithsonian by truck.

"There's nothing we can't handle," said Air Force Airman 1st Class David Strong, one of the four ramp services specialists who moved the 10-tentacled creatures. "If there's anything that needs to be shipped, we take care of it."

Dover's porters work for the world's largest aerial port, and are trained to load or unload cargo weighing 5 to 2 million pounds, and many have experience moving odd objects.

Air Force Senior Airman Michael Goicoechea, a ramp services specialist who helped to move the giant squids, said he has moved cargo ranging from submarines and Stryker vehicles to helicopters and Humvees.

"I was stationed previously at Kadena Air Base, Japan," he said. "But, I've moved more cargo working at Dover Air Force Base in five months than my two years in Kadena, and this is my first squid!"

While not trained to receive every single package, aerial port airmen here deal with all kinds of unexpected cargo.

"That is why our job is never boring," said Tech. Sgt. Steven Braddick, ramp services specialist shift supervisor, who has seen Air Force jets transport dolphins and parts for the space shuttle. "We're always learning and training throughout our career field, because who knows what else we'll be loading?"

By Air Force Master Sgt. Veronica A. Aceveda and Airman 1st Class Shen-Chia Chu
Special to American Forces Press Service

Air Force Master Sgt. Veronica A. Aceveda serves with the 512th Airlift Wing, and Air Force Airman 1st Class Shen-Chia Chu serves with the 436th Airlift Wing.