>From Abd: > At 07:44 PM 4/6/2010, Harry Veeder wrote: > >Amazing. Especially the octopus near the end of the video. > > > >http://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments.htm > l > > The disappearing octupus is just plain astonishing. Pulling up the > coloring is cool. Pulling up patterns is really cool. But imitating > texture? That is beyond cool. It is, indeed, jaw-dropping amazing. My > questions: > > How much of this is a "programmed specific camouflage ability"? I.e., > specific to that texture, that color? Could the octopus do this with > a different texture? I assume it could do it with a different color, > but that's also a question, what's the range of colors?
I believe they have done controlled experiments in aquariums where they got the creature to blend (as best as he could) into very unnatural backgrounds, like putting an artificially straight rod in the aquarium floor. The creature tried to imitate the straight bar as he lay on top of it. I'm not 100% sure of this, but it is my recollection of seeing something like this on an old NOVA or NATURE PBS program. It was really cool. These creatures are smart! Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
