The Sparkling Enope Squid

This is a picture of the Sparkling Enope squid - also known as the flirefly squid - washed up on the beach at Toyama Bay in Japan. 

The squid are are roughly 15cm in length and die after only a year of life. Found in the Western Pacific ocean, they live at depths of 183-366m and only come to the surface at night to show off their brilliant bioluminescence. The squid's photophores* are located at the end of each tentacle.

The Sparkling Enope squid is the only species of cephalopod that has evolved to be able to see colour in three visual pigments. Scientists think that this is to help them distinguish between ambient light and their own bioluminescence.

The firefly squid lights up for two reasons: the lights on the tentacle can flash to attract fish that the squid feed on, and lighting up their entire bodies help to attract a mate during the months of March to June.

* The organs that produce the light.

Things you need to know about the human brain

I'm loving James May's new series and this episode (all about the human brain) is both fascinating and highly entertaining.

You can watch the programme here via the wonders of the BBC iPlayer - not to mention those of your own visual cortex.

That's just how I roll, baby

You Are What You Eat

Mohamed Babu from India, captured these amazing pictures last year after his wife noticed that ants turned white when they drank milk.

He dissolved sugar in food colouring solutions of red, green, blue and yellow and then placed them in his garden to attract ants. Some of them even moved between the different solutions, resulting in psychedelic colour combinations.

Science + Art = ?

"I listen to colour"

Incredible. The next stage in human evolution is here...

The Counting Song

Call me an old cynic, but I love this.

"Some Infinities are bigger than others." What?!?

Just Add Water

A day out on the beach would be incomplete without a sand castle. The mightier the castle, the better. But sand is next to useless as a building material. Without water it simply spreads out as wide as possible. So in search of a good recipe Daniel Bonn, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues have stumbled upon a formula for making the perfect sandy redoubt. 

To read more about this story, click here.

The World's Tallest Sandcastle