Stephen L. Senft's research while affiliated with Marine Biological Laboratory and other places

... Furthermore, the chromatophores can vary in the number of radial muscle cells surrounding them, thus influencing the extent to which their pigment sacs expand or contract. This variation results in a wide range of color changes and patterns that colossal squids can exhibit, enhancing their camouflage abilities [4]. Each chromatophore can have between 10 and 30 radial muscle cells, all of which are controlled by the central nervous system. ...

... [1][2][3] Butterfly wings and chameleons are inspiration to develop passive components like photonic crystals and optical coatings for light manipulation due to their periodical micro-/nanostructures arrangements. [4][5][6] Gecko's architecture that has weak Waals forces and other non-covalent forces is an inspiration to develop sensors that can sense physiological senses. 7 Hydrophobic coatings, which are presently being functionalized in the textile and automotive sectors, were inspired by the lotus petal, which can resist water molecules in mud waters. ...

... Nonetheless, anatomical and behavioral SR estimates compare well in vertebrates of different classes (Arrese et al., 1999(Arrese et al., , 2000Ben-Simon, Ben-Shahar, Vasserman, Ben-Tov, & Segev, 2012;Parker et al., 2017;Reymond, 1985Reymond, , 1987. Although not relevant to a particular visual task, anatomical SR estimates match well the role of vision in a species' biology and may be efficiently used for comparative purposes (a few recent examples: Mass & Supin, 2016;Caves, Sutton, & Johnsen, 2017;Coimbra et al., 2017;Jinson, Liebich, Senft, & Mäthger, 2018;Stieb et al., 2019;Nagloo et al., 2020;Peel, Collin, & Hart, 2020). The retinal topography and SR have been extensively studied in vertebrates for the last decades (Caves et al., 2017;Donner & Yovanovich, 2020;Heukamp, Warwick, & Rivlin-Etzion, 2020). ...

... Many organisms in nature can change color for camouflage, such as leptocephalus (larvae of eels) that have transparent body color to avoid predation and Cyphochilus crataceus that are white as adults to help reflect light in the summer to lower their body temperature. [1][2][3] Inspired by this, researchers have developed various smart materials in recent years that can change their light transmission in response to changes in external stimuli, such as heat, light, pH, salt, magnetic, and electric field. Among them, thermoresponsive polymer hydrogels have received extensive attention because they can change the aggregation state of macromolecules through phase transitions, achieving reversible changes in transparency and opacity as well as mechanical properties. ...

... Vertically stacked yellow, red, and brown optical filters (chromatophores) are the uppermost strata. These chromatophores, which are attached radially to dozens of muscle cells and can be expanded and contracted through innervation by the nervous system, 44,45 are activated as fast as five times per second. 46 These organs are positioned over a layer containing Bragg reflectors (iridophores) and, in cuttlefish and octopus, white light diffusers (leucophores) which are interspersed as the bottom most optical layer. ...

... The visual lobe interacts with other lobes and neural systems in the giant squid to exhibit appropriate responses to environmental movements and ensure its visual functionality. As this creature lives in the dark depths of the sea, visual information processing is one of the most critical brain activities, accounting for over [30,31]. ...

... Numerous organisms exhibit striking and vibrant hues within their natural habitats, with certain colors stemming from an amalgamation of diverse pigments [1][2][3], while others arise from structural coloration, as observed in cuttlefish [4], chameleons [5], beetles [6] and so on [7,8]. The material's microstructure is responsible for its structural coloration, interacting with incident light, thereby impeding the transmission of specific frequencies and resulting in pronounced reflection. ...