How Bacteria Terraform a Squid:

The bacterium Vibrio fischeri is a squid terraformer. Although it can live independently in seawater, it also colonises the body of the adorable Hawaiian bobtail squid. The squid nourishes the bacteria with nutrients and the bacteria, in turn, act as an invisibility cloak. They produce a dim light that matches the moonlight shining down from above, masking the squid's silhouette from predators watching from below. With its light-emitting microbes, the squid becomes less visible. Margaret McFall-Ngai from the University of Wisconsin has been studying this partnership for almost 25 years and her team, led by postdoc Natacha Kremer, have now uncovered its very first moments. They've shown how the incoming bacteria activate the squid's genes to create a world that's more suitable for their kind. And remarkably, it takes just five of these microbial pioneers to start the terraforming (teuthoforming?) process.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.