Entries Tagged "squid"

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Friday Squid Blogging: Dissecting a Squid

This was suprisingly interesting.

When a body is mysterious, you cut it open. You peel back the skin and take stock of its guts. It is the science of an arrow, the epistemology of a list. There and here and look: You tick off organs, muscles, bones. Its belly becomes fact. It glows like fluorescent lights. The air turns aseptic and your eyes, you hope, are new.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on July 6, 2012 at 4:58 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Mutant Squid at the Queen's Jubilee

I think this is a parody, but you can never be sure.

Millions of Britons turned out for the Queen’s four-day celebrations, undaunted by the 500-foot mutant squid that was destroying London.

Huge crowds of well-wishers lined the banks of the Thames on Sunday to watch a spectacular flotilla, continuing to cheer and wave even as tentacles thicker than tree trunks emerged from the water, seizing boats and smashing them against each other.

The Queen and Prince Philip waved and smiled, undaunted as a vast gelatinous shape hauled itself from the belly of the river, tossing tenctaclefuls of screaming bystanders into its beaked maw.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on June 22, 2012 at 4:03 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Mimicking Squid Camouflage

Interesting:

Cephalopods – squid, cuttlefish and octopuses – change colour by using tiny muscles in their skins to stretch out small sacs of black colouration.

These sacs are located in the animal’s skin cells, and when a cell is ready to change colour, the brain sends a signal to the muscles and they contract.

This makes the sacs expand and creates the optical effect which makes the animal look like it is changing colour.

[…]

To mimic these natural mechanisms, the team used “smart” electro-active polymeric materials, connected to an electric circuit.

When a voltage was applied, the materials contracted; they returned to their original shape when they were short-circuited.

“These artificial muscles can replicate the [natural] muscular action… and can have strong visual effects,” said Dr Rossiter.

“These materials, and this approach, is ideal for making smart colour-changing skins or soft devices in which fluid is pumped from one place to another.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on June 1, 2012 at 4:40 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Ink from the Jurassic

Seems that squid ink hasn’t changed much in 160 million years. From this, researchers argue that the security mechanism of spraying ink into the water and escaping is also that old.

Simon and his colleagues used a combination of direct, high-resolution chemical techniques to determine that the melanin had been preserved. The researchers also compared the chemical composition of the ancient squid ink remains to that of modern squid ink from Sepia officinalis, a squid common to the Mediterranean, North and Baltic seas.

“It’s close enough that I would argue that the pigmentation in this class of animals has not evolved in 160 million years,” Simon said. “The whole machinery apparently has been locked in time and passed down through succeeding generations of squid. It’s a very optimized system for this animal and has been optimized for a long time.”

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on May 25, 2012 at 4:01 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.