The Ecosystems Center (1975-2018)

On January 1, 1975, the Ecosystems Center officially opened its doors and became the first year round center at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Since it opened, the Ecosystems Center has become a nexus for ecological research, training, and education of young scientists.

Suggested citation
LaTourelle, Jonathan Jacob. 2015. "The Neurobiology of Vision at the MBL". MBL History Project digital exhibit. http://history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/neurobiology-vision-mbl
Bibliography

Note: There is no science without a scientist, and so the author has attempted to maintain the essential truth of that—namely that at each stage of the scientific process there is a person looking at evidence and making judgments. However there is almost no personal biography, and much of the professional biography of each author has been abridged dramatically. In spite of this, the reader should keep in mind that each of these individuals were complicated people who share at least a job description. George Wald once said, “A scientist should be the happiest of men. Not that science isn't serious; but as everyone knows, being serious is one way of being happy, just as being gay is one way of being unhappy”. Each of these individuals had a scientific ethic, as well as a body of scientific work, and where possible, the author of each section has attempted to not forget the romanticism of the spirit of investigation, or the fact that many of these people were excited by a simple truth—after all, they were seeing things no one else had seen before. That majesty can be easy to forget if you are an outsider new to the complexities of visual physiology, but these scientists never forgot it.

Bibliography

Universalizing Photochemical Theories of Vision: Hecht, Wald, and the Marine Biological Laboratory

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  • Stabell, Bjørn, and Ulf Stabell. Duplicity Theory of Vision. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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Haldan Keffer Hartline, a Prize, and Two Accidents

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  • Graham, C.H., and Haldan Keffer Hartline. "The response of single visual sense cells to lights of different wave lengths." Journal of General Physiology, 1935: 917-931.
  • Grant, R, and F Ratliff. "Haldan Keffer Hartline." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (The Royal Society) 31 (Nov 1985): 262-292.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Influence of light of very low intensity on phototropic reactions of animals." Journal of General Physiology 6, no. 2 (1923): 137-152.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Inhbition in the eye of limulus." Journal of General Physiology 39, no. 5 (1956).
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "intensity and duration in the excitation of single photoreceptor units." Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, 1934: 229-247.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "The dark adaptation of the eye of Limulus, as manifested by its electric response to illumination." Journal of General Physiology 13, no. 3 (1930).
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Visual receptors and the retinal interaction." Nobel Lecture, December 1967.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer, and Floyd Ratliff. "Inhibitory interaction of receptor units in the eye of Limulus." Journal of General Physiology, 1957: 357-376.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer, and Floyd Ratliff. "Spatial summation of inhibitory influences in the eye of Limulus, and the mutual interaction of receptor units." Journal of General Physiology, May 1958: 1049-1066.
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  • Ratliff, Floyd. "Haldan Keffer Hartline 1903-1983." National Academy of Sciences, 1990.
  • Shuster, Carl N, Robert B Barlow, and H Jane Brockmann. The American Horseshoe Crab. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Roger Hanlon, Universal Camouflage, and Studying Vision at the MBL in the 21st Century

  • Allen, J.J., L.M. Mäthger, A. Barbosa, and R.T. Hanlon. "Cuttlefish use visual cues to control 3-dimensional skin papillae for camouflage." Journal of Comparative Physiology, 2009: 547-555.
  • Chiaoa, Chuan-Chin, J. Kenneth Wickiser, Justine J. Allen, Brock Genter, and Roger T. Hanlon. "Hyperspectral imaging of cuttlefish camouflage indicates good color match in the eyes of fish predators." PNAS 108, no. 22 (May 2011): 9148-9153.
  • Hanlon, Roger. "Cephalopod dynamic camouflage." Current biology , 2007: 400-404.
  • Hanlon, Roger. Rapid adaptive camouflage and signaling in cephalopods. PART I: Concepts and questions. Performed by Roger Hanlon. iBiology.org. 2011.
  • MBL. Hanlon lab - overview. 2011. http://www.mbl.edu/bell/current-faculty/hanlon/.
  • Ulmer, K.M., K.C. Buresch, M.M. Kossodo, L.M. Mäthger, L.A. Siemann, and R.T. Hanlon. " Vertical Visual Features Have a Strong Influence on Cuttlefish Camouflage ." Biological Bulletin 224, no. 2 (2013): 110-118.
  • Zimmer, Carl. "Cuttlefish camouflage." New York Times, February 13, 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/1194817111131/cuttlefish-camouflage.html.