Watch the fishing lure action right here — also pay attention to the closeups that reveal how transparent Grimalditeuthis is.
It would be so cool to be able to see our own guts like that.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
And see fecal matter moving through your colon?
Eww…No, thanks.
And see fecal matter moving through your colon?
I think I’ll give it a pass…
Especially when things go wrong. You could see gallstones or kidney stones without a pesky ultrasound.
karmacat, or choose not to spend time with someone that just ate Taco Bell.
That was my first thought too, karmacat. Also, no more worrying about ‘silent’ cancers, such as ovarian or bowel.
As for the ‘squick’ factor, we’d still wear clothes, wouldn’t we?
Tigger, the idea of wearing clothes made me think about sex, and what doesn’t get hidden.
Oooh, that’s a downside. If I had transparent skin & muscles, I’d never wear clothes again.
It would add a whole new layer of fun to sunburn, that’s for sure.
Sunburn… wow. And you could accidentally start fires by focusing sunlight with various body parts.
Ooh, if you could see your colon, you wouldn”t need a colonoscopy
How do you see if you are transparent?
UV or IR maybe, but no more seeing colour for you!
Transparent isn’t the same as invisible.
This is invisible.
Why has transparency evolved as presumably a means of avoiding being seen by predators in countless sea creatures, but very few land dwelling species (to my knowledge) have evolved with this trait?
Is this trait compatible with animals? Hypotheticall, could skin transparency genes from a cephalopod be spliced into animal genes to create lab rats with transparent skin (for example)?
#14 Jeff S:
The likely answer is refractive index. It is hard to match the refractive index of the atmosphere, but much easier to match the refractive index of water. The better you can match the refractive index, the more difficult it is to spot you.
Here’s an example of a transparent land animal: The amazing Glass katydid .
Many very small insects and mites can be transparent, but I imagine that they are most difficult to see in low or diffuse lighting, rather than in bright light where they would refract a lot.
Yeah, right. It would have saved me from a painful cystoscopy yesterday.