TED TALKS VIDEO LESSON ON UNDER WATER ASTONISHMENTS WITH DAVID GALLO
TED TALKS VIDEO LESSON ON UNDER
WATER ASTONISHMENTS WITH DAVID GALLO
1. What did Dr. Edith Widder
design so that David Gallo and his team could capture the amazing sea animals
he found in the pitch black sea?
2. David Gallo says that there is
still 97% of the world we still haven’t discovered. Isn’t that amazing? Is there
anything that you would like to study more or discover?
3. David shows us an octopus. What
can an octopus do with its eyes?
4. How do male squids fight? What
colour do they turn to when they are really aggressive?
5. What does a male squid do to attract
female squids and to portray his kinder, gentler side?
6. What can cattle fish do?
7. What adjective does David use
to describe the Australian Cuttlefish’s eyes?
8. What are algae?
9. Why does an octopus sometimes
not want to be seen?
10. What
is a predator?
11. What is the shallow water’s
full of?
12. What
two things can an octopus change to match it’s surroundings?
Transcript
00:11We're going to go on a
dive to the deep sea, and anyone that's had that lovely opportunity knows
that for about two and half hours on the way down, it's
a perfectly positively pitch-black world. And
we used to see the most mysterious animals out the window that
you couldn't describe: these blinking lights -- a world of
bioluminescence, like fireflies. Dr. Edith Widder -- she's now at the Ocean
Research and Conservation Association -- was
able to come up with a camera that could capture some of these incredible
animals, and that's what you're seeing here on the screen.
00:42That's all
bioluminescence. Like I said: just like fireflies. There's
a flying turkey under a tree.
00:47(Laughter)
00:48I'm a geologist by
training. But I love that. And
you see, some of the bioluminescence they use to avoid being eaten, some
they use to attract prey, but all of it, from an artistic point of view, is
just positively amazing. And a lot of what goes on inside -- There's
a fish with glowing eyes, pulsating eyes. Some
of the colors are designed to hypnotize, these
lovely patterns. And then this last one, one
of my favorites, this pinwheel design. Just absolutely amazing, every single dive.
01:20That's the unknown
world, and today we've only explored about 3 percent of what's out there in the ocean. Already
we've found the world's highest mountains, the
world's deepest valleys, underwater lakes, underwater waterfalls -- a
lot of that we shared with you from the stage. And
in a place where we thought no life at all, we
find more life, we think, and diversity and density than
the tropical rainforest, which tells us that we don't know much about this
planet at all. There's still 97 percent, and
either that 97 percent is empty or just full of surprises.
01:48But I want to jump up
to shallow water now and look at some creatures that are positively
amazing.Cephalopods -- head-foots. As a kid I knew them as calamari, mostly.
01:58(Laughter)
01:59This is an octopus. This
is the work of Dr. Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab, and
it's just fascinating how cephalopods can, with
their incredible eyes, sense their surroundings, look
at light, look at patterns. Here's an octopus moving across the reef, finds
a spot to settle down, curls up and then disappears into the background. Tough
thing to do.
02:19In the next bit, we're
going to see a couple squid. Now males, when they fight, if
they're really aggressive, they turn white. And
these two males are fighting. They do it by bouncing their butts together, which
is an interesting concept. Now, here's a male on the left and a female on
the right, and the male has managed to split his coloration so
the female only always sees the kinder, gentler squid in him.
02:40(Laughter)
02:44Let's take a look at it
again. Watch the coloration: white on the right, brown on the left. He
takes a step back, he's keeping off the other males by splitting his
body, and comes up on the other side -- Bingo!Now,
I'm told that's not not just a squid phenomenon with males, but
I don't know.
03:02(Laughter)
03:04Cuttlefish. I love
cuttlefish. This is a Giant Australian Cuttlefish. And
there he is, his droopy little eyes up here. But
they can do pretty amazing things, too. Here
we're going to see one backing into a crevice, and
watch his tentacles -- he just pulls them in, makes them look just like
algae. Disappears right into the background. Positively
amazing. Here's two males fighting. Once
again, they're smart enough, these cephalopods; they
know not to hurt each other. But look at the patterns that they can do with
their skin.That's an amazing thing.
03:38Here's an octopus. Sometimes
they don't want to be seen when they move, because
predators can see them. This guy can make himself look like a rock, and,
looking at his environment, can actually slide across the bottom, using
the waves and the shadows so he can't be seen. His
motion blends right into the background -- the
moving rock trick.
03:59So, we're learning lots
new from the shallow water. Still exploring the deep, but learning lots from
the shallow water. There's a good reason why: the
shallow water's full of predators -- here's a barracuda --and if you're an
octopus or a cephalopod, you need to really understand how to use your
surroundings to hide.
04:15In the next scene,
you're going to see a nice coral bottom. And
you see that an octopus would stand outvery easily there if you couldn't use
your camouflage, use your skin to change color and texture. Here's
some algae in the foreground -- and an octopus. Ain't
that amazing?
04:32Now, Roger spooked him,
so he took off in a cloud of ink, and when he lands, the octopus says, "Oh,
I've been seen. The best thing to do is to get as big as I can
get." That big brown makes his eyespot very big.So,
he's bluffing. Let's do it backwards. I thought he was joking when he first showed it
to me. I thought it was all graphics. So here it is in
reverse. Watch the skin color; watch the skin texture. Just
an amazing animal, it can change color and texture to
match the surroundings. Watch him blend right into this algae.One, two,
three.
05:03(Applause)
05:07And now he's gone, and
so am I. Thank you very much.
05:11(Applause)
