SCIENCE LAB SCEPTRE : CUTTLEFISH PARTNERS PART [ 2 ]

CUTTLEFISH may attract partners with a technique humans just can't see.

NOT only can a cuttlefish see the orientation of light waves, its body can reflect polarised light.

Male cuttlefish have a specialized pair of extra-long arms that they extend in front of them during courtship.

To the naked eye, the arms have dark and light stripes, but the specialized camera Dr. Nakayama used revealed a '' hidden '' pattern of vertically polarized light oscillating up and down and horizontally polarized light oscillating from side to side.

'' When I saw the polarization pattern on my laptop, I was incredibly excited and also confused, because it didn't look like any polarization pattern previously reported in animals,'' Dr. Nakayama said.

The World Students Society thanks Kate Golembiewski.