Creature Camouflage

According to Nature magazine, The molecules that make octopus skin so successful as a camouflage could one day provide scientists with a new way to make super-reflective materials.

Octopus, squid and cuttlefish have developed sophisticated skins so they can hide in an ocean full of hungry predators. Scientists have studied this skin and have identified a new group of proteins with remarkable properties. The bottom layer of octopus skin, made up of cells called leucophores, is composed of a translucent, colorless, reflecting protein.

These proteins are very unusual in the animal kingdom. They reflect all wavelengths of light that hit at any angle. The material looks very white in white light, and blue in the bluish light found beneath the ocean's waves. They also match the intensity of the surrounding light, all of which helps the creatures to blend into their surroundings.

The pictures show an octopus (top) and a cuttlefish (bottom) blending into their surroundings.