…and this is a 
Squid suckers
Category: Art • Cephalopods
Posted on: September 28, 2008 12:44 PM, by PZ Myers
This photo won an honorable mention in the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. They were robbed! Grand prize or they'll rip the judges' faces off!
Squidsuckers: The Little Monsters That Feed the Beast
Credit: Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer, Drexel University
Crunch. The satisfying sound of a crushed cockroach comes from the destruction of its chitin-based exoskeleton. The white, fanglike circles in this electron micrograph of squid suckers are also chitin, but they are not so easily crushed. Their scant 400-micrometer diameter belies the true power of the suckers. A squid uses them to latch onto prey and force the unfortunate creature to its beak, where it is readily slurped down. "They're just tiny things, but they really keep the beast alive," says Jessica Schiffman, a doctoral student in material science engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She compiled the image while researching chitin properties in the lab of Caroline Schauer. The iconic film Little Shop of Horrors inspired the color scheme, she says.
Life Science
Comments
Posted by: speedwell | September 28, 2008 1:03 PM
They look like they were knitted in green, white, and burgundy yarn, with papoer-mache teeth. Maybe Miss Skatje could help you with a model. heh.
Posted by: Dust | September 28, 2008 1:18 PM
Audrey III?
Posted by: Sili | September 28, 2008 1:25 PM
I still say Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Posted by: pablo | September 28, 2008 1:25 PM
There's kind of a "when muppets turn on their masters" quality about them.
Posted by: Brad D | September 28, 2008 1:30 PM
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Posted by: whoneedscience | September 28, 2008 1:33 PM
Am I the only one thinking "Don't Panic!"?
Posted by: Nick Gotts | September 28, 2008 1:37 PM
Remind me never to get eaten by a squid.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | September 28, 2008 2:00 PM
Wow. Imagine having the inside of your arms lined with Langoliers!
"You cannot escape my embrace, my tender morsel. Never!"
Posted by: Patricia | September 28, 2008 2:13 PM
What?! I thought that was a photo of the Molly winners.
*ducks*
Posted by: Tor A H | September 28, 2008 2:50 PM
Hehe. They're hilarious.
Nom nom nom nom
Posted by: Ichthyic | September 28, 2008 2:52 PM
What?! I thought that was a photo of the Molly winners.
naw, like I said before, I have more rows of teeth than that.
Posted by: mermaid | September 28, 2008 2:52 PM
My Little Cthulhu
Have you seen these? More cute little suckers!
http://spippo.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Cthulhu-94509492
http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html
Posted by: CMurdock | September 28, 2008 3:15 PM
Two comments saying they look like Cthulhu? Do you even know what Cthulhu's supposed to look like??? NOTHING like this.
Posted by: Sili | September 28, 2008 3:19 PM
Teach the controversy!!
Posted by: Sili | September 28, 2008 3:22 PM
F'tagn?
Choose wisely. Vote early, vote often. Iä! Iä! F'tagn!
Posted by: James F | September 28, 2008 4:33 PM
#8
It's totally The Langoliers.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | September 28, 2008 5:57 PM
False-colored SE micrographs like this piss me off. Once you start making decisions about a "color scheme" it doesn't count as science any more, in my book.
Posted by: amphiox | September 28, 2008 6:13 PM
Don't be such a curmudgeon, Sven.
If the color scheme was intended to help analyze or convey information, then it might be science. If it was intended to please the eye, then it is art.
This is art. Based on science. What's wrong with that?
Posted by: SC | September 28, 2008 6:23 PM
Did anyone notice the "Visualizing The Bible" honorable mention in the Illustration category? What does that have to do with visualizing science?
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox | September 28, 2008 7:28 PM
Resembles a swarm of Isz from The Maxx.
Posted by: Skeeve | September 28, 2008 9:31 PM
Hey I saw that picture a few days ago and my first thought was to send you the link, but after never hearing back from you on the last pic I sent or seeing it here I figured you'd never see the email anyway. You need a super secret atheist email addy.
Posted by: Prof. Bleen | September 29, 2008 12:23 AM
Look out--it's El Chupacalamares! Oh, wait: the squid is administering the sucking, in this case, and is not the victim of it.
Posted by: Sleeping at the Console | September 29, 2008 1:12 AM
That's just an awesome picture. Thanks!
Posted by: Escuerd | September 29, 2008 5:17 AM
I had to immediately check the comments to see how many other people thought of the Langoliers when they saw this.
Posted by: Trish | September 29, 2008 5:25 AM
Escuerd - I was thinking exactly the same thing. heh
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | September 29, 2008 9:20 AM
That was...odd.
I have no problem with "art" of any kind. I just don't think it's the same thing as "visualizing science."
But I'll cop to the curmudgeon thing.