Light Experiment

We returned to the lab the following day to conduct our second experiment. Our plan was to put a baby octopus in the same clear plastic container we had used the previous day, let it adjust to the new environment, and then observe its responses to different colors of light. We did this by turning off the lights, covering the top of the container with colored tissue paper, and shining a flashlight down from 12 inches away. We anticipated that the light source we used could sway our results, so we brought four flashlights from home and tested them all to see which one best suited our experiment; we chose one that let out an even white light that wasn't so bright that it would surprise the octopus too much.

After a few minutes of trying to get the octopus into the test container, Malwina stuck her hand further into the container to get a better angle, but the stubborn octopus darted right past the shell and onto her hand.

Before starting, we watched the octopus under regular light for a few minutes and saw that it didn't change much from a dark brown color. Then we turned off the lights and the three of us adjusted to the dark for about three minutes. To set up a control, we turned on the flashlight without using any tissue paper. Under this focused plain light, the octopus was a noticeably lighter shade of brown.

We began our experiment with red. However, once we started we quickly realized that under different colors of light it was difficult to observe any change in the octopus's skin color. Everything just looked red! After a few moments of standing there unsure of what to do next, we noticed with relief that we could still see when the octopus became dark or light. It was a little difficult to see even with out faces inches away from the container, so we hope our description makes some sense! If you haven't seen it before up close, when an octopus changes color it looks almost like a dye has flushed its skin in a split second.

So we resumed our experiment with a new approach. We would first observe the octopus under the light for 2 minutes, and see the color it had turned by quickly lifting the paper. Unfortunately, our results seemed to reflect the same responses, so we concluded that our method was ineffective for this kind of experiment. Darn! But trial and error is part of being a true scientist, so we were not too disappointed.