I am not much of a cat person (and especially not in a Simone Simon kind of way, which is unfortunate because I bet that would be fun), so cat videos and those cat meme images (or any meme images) that turn up with monotonous regularity on Facebook don’t really do anything for me.
But mollusks are another story.
So for your Friday afternoon enjoyment, here is a video of what has been called a “disco clam” (although it’s technically a scallop and has been called in the literature an “electric scallop”), a species of bivalve (Ctenoides ales) that reflects light in such a way that it looks like it is flashing like a strobe. Basically, Disco Clams aka The Electric Scallops (great band names both, by the way) have light-reflecting cells along the edge of their mantle, the soft bit inside the shell. As the mantle undulates, the cells are hidden and unhidden, producing the strobing effect. C. ales is the only bivalve species that uses a light display. As for what it uses it for, researchers are not entirely certain, although they believe they have narrowed it down to either attracting prey or attracting mates. Eating or sex, basically, which are two pretty safe assumptions throughout nature.
Optional soundtrack: “Rock Lobster” by The B-52s, or perhaps “Bye Bivalve” by The Everly Brothers.
About Richard Romano
Richard Romano is Managing Editor of WhatTheyThink. He curates the Wide Format section on WhatTheyThink.com. He has been writing about the graphic communications industry for more than 25 years. He is the author or coauthor of more than half a dozen books on printing technology and business. His most recent book is “Beyond Paper: An Interactive Guide to Wide-Format and Specialty Printing.