Gizmorama - August 25, 2014

Good Morning,

A lab is working on a technology that mimics the camouflage capabilities of the octopus, squid and cuttlefish. What's next, a device that shoots ink at potential predators?

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*- Color-changing sheet inspired by octopus skin -*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish -- known collectively as cephalopods -- posses the most impressive camouflage capabilities in the natural world. Their skin can change color, shape and texture in the blink of an eye, adapting to new surroundings on the fly.

Now, those capabilities have been replicated in the lab -- or at least some of them. Scientists recently unveiled a new device, a thin and flexible pixellated sheet, that can change colors in response to its environs. The sheet was designed by materials scientists Cunjiang Yu, from the University of Houston, and John Rogers, from the University of Illinois at Urbana. Their work was assisted by marine biologist Roger Hanlon, from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

"Our device sees color and matches it," Rogers said in a released statement. "It reads the environment using thermochromatic material."

The device is layered, featuring a light-detecting sheet at the bottom, with a silver layer above that gives the pliable skin-like device its shiny white base. Above that sits a sheet of diodes that heats overlying dye. The dye appears black at low temperatures and clear at high temps. It's all mounted on a flexible base.

"There are analogies between layers of our system and those in the cephalopod skin, but all the actual function is achieved in radically different ways," Rogers told National Geographic. "The multi-layer architecture works really well, though. Evolution reached the same conclusion."

Though the device and nature reached similar conclusions, the device is nowhere near as powerful or impressive as the real thing. For starters, it can only switch between black and white. And because it requires heat to change color, the device is comparatively slow, uses a lot of (too much) power, and reacts to only a narrow range of temps.

"Real cephalopods are capable of levels of active camouflage orders of magnitude more sophisticated than our system," Rogers told Popular Mechanics. "But we hope to eventually design manmade systems that rival those we see in biology."

The device was funded by the Office of Naval Research, and Rogers and his colleagues say the most obvious application for this technology is some sort of military camouflage function. The device is detailed in the latest edition of the journal PNAS.


*-- Curiosity rover slowed by 'Hidden Valley' sand trap on Mars --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Slick sands in Hidden Valley have delayed the Mars rover Curiosity's planned ascent of a nearby mountain. With suboptimal traction between the valley floor and the rover's tires, engineers are being forced to consider alternative routes.

A little more than a year ago, Curiosity headed out from Yellowknife Bay with its sights set on Aeolis Mons, also known as Mount Sharp, a major Red Planet peak that rises from the center of Gale Crater. Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's most coveted destination since even before it landed in 2012. But the rover has skidded into a bit of slippery situation, thwarting its preferred route to the mountain's base.

"We need to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the wheels and Martian sand ripples, and Hidden Valley is not a good location for experimenting," Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson said in a news release.

Since Curiosity left Yellowknife Bay, its traversed more than five miles, stopping along the way to drill rock and collect samples. It has two miles left to Mount Sharp's base, but having reversed course out Hidden Valley's slippery sand flats it will now have to find an alternative passage.

Before Curiosity heads off to ascend the foothills of Mount Sharp, NASA scientists want the rover to drill a rock known as "Bonanza King." The slab lies at the northeastern end of Hidden Valley, not far from the rover's current location. Researchers say it could offer context clues as to the geological history and evolution of Gale Crater and the Red Planet.

The valley is roughly the length of a football field, but the slippery sands look like they will force Curiosity to make its way to the mountain by driving north and around the valley to the other side. The pit stop to drill Bonanza King -- its fourth drilling specimen of the mission -- will give NASA engineers time to chart out a new course to Mount Sharp.

"This rock has an appearance quite different from the sandstones we've been driving through for several months," Curiosity project deputy scientist Ashwin Vasavada said. "The landscape is changing, and that's worth checking out."

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