Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures
-
0:01 - 0:04I'm a marine biologist
and an explorer-photographer -
0:04 - 0:06with National Geographic,
-
0:06 - 0:07but I want to share a secret.
-
0:08 - 0:11This image is totally incorrect,
-
0:11 - 0:13totally incorrect.
-
0:13 - 0:15I see a couple of people
crying in the back -
0:15 - 0:18that I've blown their idea of mermaids.
-
0:18 - 0:20All right, the mermaid is indeed real,
-
0:21 - 0:23but anyone who's gone on a dive
-
0:23 - 0:25will know that the ocean
looks more like this. -
0:26 - 0:29It's because the ocean
is this massive filter, -
0:29 - 0:31and as soon as you start going underwater,
-
0:31 - 0:33you're going to lose your colors,
-
0:33 - 0:36and it's going to get dark
and blue very quickly. -
0:36 - 0:39But we're humans --
we're terrestrial mammals. -
0:39 - 0:41And we've got trichromatic vision,
-
0:41 - 0:44so we see in red, green and blue,
-
0:44 - 0:46and we're just complete color addicts.
-
0:46 - 0:49We love eye-popping color,
-
0:49 - 0:52and we try to bring this eye-popping color
-
0:52 - 0:53underwater with us.
-
0:53 - 0:57So there's been a long and sordid history
of bringing color underwater, -
0:57 - 1:02and it starts 88 years ago
with Bill Longley and Charles Martin, -
1:02 - 1:05who were trying to take
the first underwater color photograph. -
1:05 - 1:08And they're in there
with old-school scuba suits, -
1:08 - 1:10where you're pumping air down to them,
-
1:10 - 1:15and they've got a pontoon
of high-explosive magnesium powder, -
1:16 - 1:18and the poor people
at the surface are not sure -
1:18 - 1:21when they're going to pull the string
when they've got their frame in focus, -
1:21 - 1:24and -- boom! -- a pound
of high explosives would go off -
1:24 - 1:27so they could put
a little bit of light underwater -
1:27 - 1:30and get an image
like this beautiful hogfish. -
1:30 - 1:33I mean, it's a gorgeous image,
but this is not real. -
1:33 - 1:36They're creating an artificial environment
-
1:36 - 1:40so we can satisfy
our own addiction to color. -
1:40 - 1:44And looking at it the other way,
what we've been finding -
1:44 - 1:47is that instead of bringing color
underwater with us, -
1:47 - 1:50that we've been looking at the blue ocean,
-
1:50 - 1:52and it's a crucible of blue,
-
1:52 - 1:55and these animals living there
for millions of years -
1:55 - 2:00have been evolving all sorts of ways
to take in that blue light -
2:00 - 2:02and give off other colors.
-
2:02 - 2:05And here's just a little sample
of what this secret world looks like. -
2:05 - 2:07It's like an underwater light show.
-
2:07 - 2:11(Music)
-
2:11 - 2:15Again, what we're seeing here
is blue light hitting this image. -
2:15 - 2:18These animals are absorbing the blue light
-
2:18 - 2:20and immediately transforming this light.
-
2:23 - 2:28So if you think about it, the ocean
is 71 percent of the planet, -
2:28 - 2:32and blue light can extend down
to almost a 1,000 meters. -
2:32 - 2:34As we go down underwater,
-
2:34 - 2:37after about 10 meters,
all the red is gone. -
2:37 - 2:40So if you see anything
under 10 meters that's red, -
2:40 - 2:43it's an animal transforming
and creating its own red. -
2:43 - 2:50This is the largest single monochromatic
blue environment on our planet. -
2:51 - 2:55And my gateway into this world
of biofluorescence begins with corals. -
2:55 - 2:57And I want to give
a full TED Talk on corals -
2:57 - 2:59and just how cool these things are.
-
2:59 - 3:03One of the things that they do,
one of their miraculous feats, -
3:03 - 3:05is they produce lots of these
fluorescent proteins, -
3:05 - 3:07fluorescent molecules.
-
3:07 - 3:12And in this coral, it could be making
up to 14 percent of its body mass -- -
3:12 - 3:14could be this fluorescent protein.
-
3:14 - 3:18So you wouldn't be making, like,
14 percent muscle and not using it, -
3:18 - 3:22so it's likely doing something
that has a functional role. -
3:22 - 3:26And for the last 10, 15 years,
this was so special to me, -
3:26 - 3:31because this molecule has turned out
to be one of the most revolutionary tools -
3:31 - 3:33in biomedical science,
-
3:33 - 3:36and it's allowing us
to better see inside ourselves. -
3:37 - 3:40So, how do I study this?
-
3:40 - 3:43In order to study biofluorescence,
we swim at night. -
3:43 - 3:44And when I started out,
-
3:44 - 3:48I was just using these blue
duct-tape filters over my strobe, -
3:48 - 3:51so I could make sure
I'm actually seeing the light -
3:51 - 3:53that's being transformed by the animals.
-
3:53 - 3:56We're making an exhibit
for the Museum of Natural History, -
3:56 - 4:00and we're trying to show off how great
the fluorescent corals are on the reef, -
4:00 - 4:03and something happened
that just blew me away: -
4:03 - 4:05this.
-
4:05 - 4:06In the middle of our corals,
-
4:06 - 4:09is this green fluorescent fish.
-
4:10 - 4:12It's the first time we've ever seen
a green fluorescent fish -
4:12 - 4:14or any vertebrate for that matter.
-
4:14 - 4:17And we're rubbing our eyes,
checking the filters, -
4:17 - 4:20thinking that somebody's maybe
playing a joke on us with the camera, -
4:20 - 4:22but the eel was real.
-
4:22 - 4:25It was the first green
fluorescent eel that we found, -
4:25 - 4:28and this just changed
my trajectory completely. -
4:28 - 4:32So I had to put down my corals and team up
-
4:32 - 4:34with a fish scientist, John Sparks,
-
4:34 - 4:36and begin a search around the world
-
4:36 - 4:40to see how prevalent this phenomenon is.
-
4:40 - 4:42And fish are much more
interesting than corals, -
4:42 - 4:44because they have really advanced vision,
-
4:44 - 4:48and some of the fish even have,
the way that I was photographing it, -
4:48 - 4:52they have lenses in their eyes
that would magnify the fluorescence. -
4:52 - 4:54So I wanted to seek this out further.
-
4:54 - 4:56So we designed a new set of gear
-
4:56 - 4:58and we're scouring the reefs
around the world, -
4:58 - 5:00looking for fluorescent life.
-
5:00 - 5:02And it's a bit like "E.T. phone home."
-
5:02 - 5:04We're out there swimming
with this blue light, -
5:04 - 5:07and we're looking for a response,
-
5:07 - 5:10for animals to be absorbing the light
and transferring this back to us. -
5:10 - 5:15And eventually, we found
our photobombing Kaupichphys eel. -
5:15 - 5:19It's a really shy, reclusive eel
that we know almost nothing about. -
5:19 - 5:21They're only about the size of my finger,
-
5:21 - 5:26and they spend about 99.9 percent
of their time hidden under a rock. -
5:26 - 5:30But these eels do come out to mate
under full-moon nights, -
5:30 - 5:34and that full-moon night
translates underwater to blue. -
5:34 - 5:36Perhaps they're using this
as a way to see each other, -
5:36 - 5:38quickly find each other, mate,
-
5:38 - 5:41go back into their hole
for the next long stint of time. -
5:41 - 5:44But then we started to find
other fluorescent marine life, -
5:44 - 5:47like this green fluorescent bream,
-
5:47 - 5:51with its, like, racing stripes
along its head and its nape, -
5:51 - 5:55and it's almost camouflaged
and fluorescing at the same intensity -
5:55 - 5:57as the fluorescent coral there.
-
5:58 - 6:00After this fish,
-
6:00 - 6:05we were introduced to this red
fluorescent scorpionfish -
6:05 - 6:07cloaked and hidden on this rock.
-
6:07 - 6:11The only time we've ever seen this,
it's either on red fluorescent algae -
6:11 - 6:12or red fluorescent coral.
-
6:13 - 6:18Later, we found this stealthy
green fluorescent lizardfish. -
6:18 - 6:20These lizardfish come in many varieties,
-
6:20 - 6:23and they look almost exactly alike
under white light. -
6:23 - 6:26But if you look at them
under fluorescent light, -
6:26 - 6:27you see lots of patterns,
-
6:27 - 6:30you can really see
the differences among them. -
6:30 - 6:33And in total -- we just reported
this last year -- -
6:33 - 6:37we found over 200 species
of biofluorescent fish. -
6:38 - 6:44One of my inspirations is French artist
and biologist Jean Painlevé. -
6:44 - 6:48He really captures this entrepreneuring,
creative spirit in biology. -
6:48 - 6:52He would design his own gear,
make his own cameras, -
6:52 - 6:56and he was fascinated with the seahorse,
Hippocampus erectus, -
6:56 - 6:59and he filmed for the first time
the seahorse giving birth. -
7:00 - 7:02So this is the male seahorse.
-
7:02 - 7:06They were one of the first fish
to start swimming upright -
7:06 - 7:08with their brain above their head.
-
7:08 - 7:09The males give birth,
-
7:09 - 7:11just phenomenal creatures.
-
7:13 - 7:14So he stayed awake for days.
-
7:14 - 7:17He even put this electrical visor
on his head that would shock him, -
7:18 - 7:19so he could capture this moment.
-
7:21 - 7:23Now, I wish I could have shown Painlevé
-
7:23 - 7:26the moment where we found
biofluorescent seahorses -
7:26 - 7:29in the exact same species
that he was studying. -
7:29 - 7:30And here's our footage.
-
7:30 - 7:33(Music)
-
7:34 - 7:36They're the most cryptic fish.
-
7:36 - 7:39You could be swimming right on top of them
and not see the seahorse. -
7:40 - 7:45They would blend right into the algae,
which would also fluoresce red, -
7:45 - 7:46but they've got great vision,
-
7:46 - 7:48and they go through
this long mating ritual, -
7:48 - 7:51and perhaps they're using it
in that effect. -
7:52 - 7:55But things got pretty edgy
-
7:55 - 8:00when we found green
fluorescence in the stingray, -
8:00 - 8:03because stingrays are
in the Elasmobranch class, -
8:03 - 8:05which includes ...
-
8:05 - 8:07sharks.
-
8:07 - 8:10So I'm, like, a coral biologist.
-
8:10 - 8:14Somebody's got to go down and check
to see if the sharks are fluorescent. -
8:14 - 8:15And there I am.
-
8:15 - 8:16(Laughter)
-
8:16 - 8:19And I was like, "Maybe I should
go back to corals." -
8:19 - 8:20(Laughter)
-
8:20 - 8:22It turns out that these sharks
are not fluorescent. -
8:23 - 8:25And then we found it.
-
8:25 - 8:30In a deep, dark canyon
off the coast of California, -
8:30 - 8:34we found the first
biofluorescent swellshark, -
8:34 - 8:36right underneath all the surfers.
-
8:36 - 8:37Here it is.
-
8:37 - 8:40They're just about a meter long.
It's called a swellshark. -
8:40 - 8:43And they call them a swellshark
because if they're threatened, -
8:43 - 8:46they can gulp down water
and blow up like an inner tube, -
8:46 - 8:47about twice their size,
-
8:47 - 8:52and wedge themselves under a rock,
so they don't get eaten by a predator. -
8:52 - 8:56And here is our first footage
of these biofluorescent swellsharks. -
8:57 - 9:02Just magnificent -- I mean,
they're showing these distinct patterns, -
9:02 - 9:06and there are areas that are fluorescent
and areas that are not fluorescent, -
9:06 - 9:08but they've also got these
twinkling spots on them -
9:08 - 9:11that are much brighter
than other parts of the shark. -
9:11 - 9:13But this is all beautiful to see.
-
9:13 - 9:15I was like, this is gorgeous.
-
9:15 - 9:18But what does it mean to the shark?
-
9:18 - 9:19Can they see this?
-
9:19 - 9:21And we looked in the literature,
-
9:21 - 9:24and nothing was known
about this shark's vision. -
9:24 - 9:28So I took this shark to eye specialist
Ellis Loew at Cornell University, -
9:28 - 9:32and we found out that this shark
sees discretely and acutely -
9:32 - 9:34in the blue-green interface,
-
9:34 - 9:37probably about 100 times better
than we can see in the dark, -
9:37 - 9:38but they only see blue-green.
-
9:38 - 9:42So what it's doing
is taking this blue world -
9:42 - 9:44and it's absorbing the blue,
creating green. -
9:44 - 9:47It's creating contrast
that they can indeed see. -
9:47 - 9:48So we have a model,
-
9:48 - 9:52showing that it creates an ability
for them to see all these patterns. -
9:52 - 9:55And males and females
also have, we're finding, -
9:55 - 9:57distinct patterns among them.
-
9:57 - 10:03But our last find came really just
a few miles from where we are now, -
10:03 - 10:04in the Solomon Islands.
-
10:04 - 10:09Swimming at night, I encountered
the first biofluorescent sea turtle. -
10:09 - 10:12So now it's going from fish
and sharks into reptiles, -
10:12 - 10:15which, again, this is only one month old,
-
10:15 - 10:18but it shows us
that we know almost nothing -
10:18 - 10:20about this hawksbill turtle's vision.
-
10:20 - 10:23And it makes me think about
how much more there is to learn. -
10:23 - 10:25And here in the Solomon Islands,
-
10:25 - 10:28there's only a few thousand
breeding females of this species left, -
10:28 - 10:30and this is one of the hotspots for them.
-
10:30 - 10:33So it shows us how much we need
to really protect these animals -
10:33 - 10:36while they're still here,
and understand them. -
10:36 - 10:38In thinking about biofluorescence,
-
10:38 - 10:40I wanted to know, how deep does it go?
-
10:40 - 10:42Does this go all the way
to the bottom of the ocean? -
10:42 - 10:46So we started using submarines,
and we equipped them -
10:46 - 10:48with special blue lights
on the front here. -
10:48 - 10:50And we dropped down,
-
10:50 - 10:53and we noticed one important thing --
-
10:53 - 10:56that as we get down to 1,000 meters,
-
10:56 - 10:57it drops off.
-
10:57 - 11:01There's no biofluorescent marine life
down there, below 1,000 meters -- -
11:01 - 11:03almost nothing, it's just darkness.
-
11:03 - 11:06So it's mainly a shallow phenomenon.
-
11:06 - 11:07And below 1,000 meters,
-
11:07 - 11:10we encountered the bioluminescent zone,
-
11:10 - 11:13where nine out of 10 animals
are actually making their own lights -
11:13 - 11:15and flashing and blinking.
-
11:15 - 11:17As I try to get deeper,
-
11:17 - 11:20this is slapping on a one-person
submarine suit -- -
11:20 - 11:23some people call this my "Jacques Cousteau
meets Woody Allen" moment. -
11:23 - 11:25(Laughter)
-
11:25 - 11:27But as we explore down here,
-
11:27 - 11:30I was thinking about: How do we
interact with life delicately? -
11:30 - 11:33Because we're entering
a new age of exploration, -
11:33 - 11:35where we have to take great care,
-
11:35 - 11:38and we have to set examples
how we explore. -
11:38 - 11:41So I've teamed up with roboticist Rob Wood
at Harvard University, -
11:41 - 11:45and we've been designing
squishy underwater robot fingers, -
11:46 - 11:49so we can delicately interact
with the marine life down there. -
11:49 - 11:54The idea is that most of our technologies
to explore the deep ocean -
11:54 - 11:57come from oil and gas and military,
-
11:57 - 12:00who, you know, they're not really
caring to be gentle. -
12:00 - 12:03Some corals could be 1,000 years old.
-
12:03 - 12:06You don't want to just go
and crush them with a big claw. -
12:06 - 12:08So my dream is something like this.
-
12:08 - 12:10At night, I'm in a submarine,
-
12:10 - 12:12I have force-feedback gloves,
-
12:12 - 12:16and I could delicately set up
a lab in the front of my submarine, -
12:16 - 12:18where the squishy robot fingers
-
12:18 - 12:21are delicately collecting
and putting things in jars, -
12:21 - 12:22and we can conduct our research.
-
12:23 - 12:25Back to the powerful applied applications.
-
12:25 - 12:28Here, you're looking at a living brain
-
12:28 - 12:32that's using the DNA
of fluorescent marine creatures, -
12:32 - 12:34this one from jellyfish and corals,
-
12:34 - 12:37to illuminate the living brain
and see its connections. -
12:37 - 12:39It's funny that we're using RGB
-
12:39 - 12:41just to kind of satisfy
our own human intuition, -
12:41 - 12:44so we can see our brains better.
-
12:44 - 12:46And even more mind-blowing,
-
12:46 - 12:49is my close colleague
Vincent Pieribone at Yale, -
12:49 - 12:52who has actually designed and engineered
a fluorescent protein -
12:52 - 12:54that responds to voltage.
-
12:54 - 12:58So he could see
when a single neuron fires. -
12:58 - 13:02You're essentially looking at
a portal into consciousness -
13:02 - 13:05that was designed by marine creatures.
-
13:06 - 13:11So this brings me all back
to perspective and relationship. -
13:11 - 13:13From deep space,
-
13:13 - 13:16our universe looks
like a human brain cell, -
13:16 - 13:19and then here we are in the deep ocean,
-
13:19 - 13:22and we're finding
marine creatures and cells -
13:22 - 13:24that can illuminate the human mind.
-
13:24 - 13:27And it's my hope
that with illuminated minds, -
13:27 - 13:31we could ponder the overarching
interconnectedness of all life, -
13:31 - 13:33and fathom how much more lies in store
-
13:33 - 13:35if we keep our oceans healthy.
-
13:35 - 13:36Thank you.
-
13:36 - 13:41(Applause)
- Title:
- Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures
- Speaker:
- David Gruber
- Description:
-
Just a few meters below the waves, marine biologist and explorer-photographer David Gruber discovered something amazing -- a surprising new range of sea creatures that glow in many colors in the ocean's dim blue light. Join his journey in search of biofluorescent sharks, seahorses, sea turtles and more, and learn how these light-up creatures could illuminate a new understanding of our own brains.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:54
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Camille Martínez approved English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other stunning sea creatures |