Author: Jessica Leigh Hester / Source: Atlas Obscura
Say you’re trying to go incognito. If it’s nighttime, you might try to blend into the inky background by wrapping yourself in dark clothes or a blanket. Maybe you’d be less visible to the naked eye, but you wouldn’t fool an infrared camera—that device picks up heat and longer wavelengths of light that human eyes can’t perceive.
To devise camouflage that’s better able to evade these detectors, scientists are looking to cephalopods, masters of undersea disguise.In addition to being clever engineers, octopuses, squids, and their cephalopod brethren are expert hiders. Researchers often turn to them for clues about how humans—and the technology we build—can perfect the art of vanishing from view. Last fall, backed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, a robotics team from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University took a cue from the way that octopuses and cuttlefish can quickly flex their papillae—the little bumps freckling their skin—to blend…
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