And for my next trick… inflatable corals

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtr1R1jpfb0[/youtube]

Pim Bongaerts from the University of Queensland came up with the  idea of bringing a solitary mushroom coral into the lab, covering it in sand, and filming it trying to escape. Here it is, puffing its way out.

Ingenious and beautiful.

Question: does it make whooppee cushion noises as it does it? (they don’t mention it in the paper in Coral Reefs journal).