All across the world’s oceans, you can find creatures known as larvaceans – free-swimming invertebrates with a superpower, of sorts.
They make huge structures out of snot.
And that might sound gross, but it turns out that there’s a lot we can learn from these animals, and this week we’ll talk to a researcher who has just made a breakthrough in our ability to do just that.
Joining us on the line from the California coast is Kakani Katija, the principle engineer for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, where her work is focused on bio-inspired engineering design, experimental fluid dynamics and the feeding ecology of marine organisms.