Science behind TV's Octonauts
If you want to feed the fascination of your little ones with the ocean, the Octonauts adventures are great - they firmly feature real science. So here are a few of my favourites (in series order) with the links to the actual research papers that they're based on:
S1E14 "Octonauts & the Albino Humpback Whale" - natural sunscreen properties of mushroom coral mucus: Drollet et al. (1993) and sightings of rare albino humpback whales such as "Migaloo".
S1E16 "Octonauts & the Enemy Anemones" - how groups of anemone clones go to "war" with each other: Ayre & Grosberg (2005).
S1E19 "Octonauts & the Snapping Shrimp" - Dashi's slow-motion video reveals that the shrimp's snap comes from bubbles collapsing when it shuts its claw very fast: the same method used to investigate it by Verluis et al. (2000).
S3E17 "Octonauts & the Immortal Jellyfish" - the astonishing jellyfish species that can transform from an adult back into earlier stages of its life cycle: Piraino et al. (1996).
S3E18 "Octonauts & the Urchin Invasion" - sea otters as a "keystone species", maintaining kelp forests by feeding on grazing urchins: Estes et al. (1998).
S4E7 "Octonauts & the Loneliest Whale" - a whale with a song at a frequency unlike any others: Watkins et al. (2004) [and I'm particularly fond of that one, as I was the first science journalist to cover the story in back in December 2004].
S4E8 "Octonauts & the Tree Lobsters" - discovery of "tree lobster" stick insects on Ball's Pyramid: Priddel et al. (2003).
S4E12 "Octonauts & the Bomber Worms" - deep-sea worms that grow bioluminescent "bombs" that they can eject to confuse predators: Osborn et al. (2009).
"Octonauts & the Over, Under Adventure" special - "brinicles" that grow from sea ice were shown experimentally by Martin (1974) and first filmed in nature, including freezing marine life, by a BBC Natural History team of Kathryn Jeffs, Hugh Miller & Doug Anderson for Frozen Planet.
"Octonauts & Operation Deep Freeze" special - not a specific research paper for this, but the "bloop" sound traced to icequakes by Prof Natquik was the work of Dr Robert Dziak & colleagues, monitoring Antarctic underwater sounds.
S5E26 "Octonauts & the Scaly-Foot Snail" - (yet to air in the UK, but already broadcast in China) a personal favourite, because it stars a species whose description I co-authored - the scaly-foot snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum) from Indian Ocean hydrothermal vents: Chen et al. (2015).
The remarkable properties of the snail's shell are part of the story (no spoilers!): Yao et al. (2010).
A few years before the Season 5 episode, Fisher-Price also created an Octonauts toy of the scaly-foot snail (though if you do acquire one, please make a family heirloom, as that plastic will last for centuries).
Jon Copley, November 2017
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