Project Squid Skin: Pentagon Gives $6 Million to Mimic Marine Life

Biomimicry, or the emulation of nature to solve human problems, inspires some fascinating scientific research. Marine animals in particular are useful sources of information; last year, for example, MIT researchers began work on electronic screens and ink that use less than one hundredth the energy of traditional screens–and are based on the color-changing abilities of cuttlefish. Now the U.S. Department of Defense is giving a $6 million grant to researchers at Rice University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole for metamaterials that mimic skin colors and patterns seen in sea creatures — via redwolf.newsvine.com