“Using Colour To Talk”, An Interview With Squid Biologist, Science Communicator, & Nonprofit Founder Dr. Sarah McAnulty
Today’s article is very special, as it contains an interview with Squid Biologist, Science Communicator, & Nonprofit Founder, Doctor Sarah McAnulty! Our main writer interviewed with this intriguing Squid Enthusiast on September 11th, 2024. Doctor Sarah McAnulty is well known for her Squid & Cuttlefish Research, Founding of the Skype-A-Scientist Project, & courses with Atlas Obscura.
In this Interview, we ask 20 impactful questions, & get many insightful as well as intriguing answers. Before reading the article, please note that all of these answers are paraphrased & are not exact quotations. With that being said, let us delve into the Contents of the Interview.
The Contents Of The Interview
How Did You Become Interested In Marine Biology?
I grew up right outside of Philadelphia which is not on the coast, however it helped. I got interested in marine biology by going to the library a lot as a kid, as I was very interested in Dinosaurs. One day, I took a VHS tape out of the library that was a National Geographic Kids Tape called “Really Wild Animals”, which was all about the ocean. About halfway through, they began discussing Cuttlefish, which are very very closely related to Squid.
I was interested in them because of how cool & weird they were, & fascinated by how they changed colors so quickly. I became kind of obsessed then, & wanted to figure out how to become a Marine Biologist.
2. Was there a specific moment, person, or place that helped to spark your interest in Marine biology?
Probably that National Geography Kids Tape. I guess the person & the moment that I truly realized this was possible was at Boston University when I was getting my undergraduate degree in biology was during a Lecture Series in the Marine Sciences Department. The person who came to do the guest lecture’s name was Lydia Mäthgur, & she worked on cuttlefish! I went to her talk, & I couldn’t believe someone had that job, & realized that that was the job that I wanted to have. After the talk, I went up to her & told her “Hi I’m Sarah, you have my dream job, how do I get involved or work at your laboratory?”. She responded with “Well, you’re kind of young to be working in our laboratory, why don’t you apply next year? You can work with me & the scientist who works above me, Roger.”.
I thought about it & wanted to apply for the job sooner, so I found out where Roger, the head of the laboratory, was giving a talk, & decided to go. He was giving a talk at Brown University, so I decided to take the day off from school & take the 45-minute train ride to Brown, & talk to Roger directly. So that is what I did, & he told me “Well you’re a little young, but you can apply if you want to”.
So I wrote this deranged cover letter explaining “If you don’t hire me this year, you’re just going to hire me next year, so why waste our time?”, which in retrospect was a very silly thing to do, but it worked, & they hired me!
3. What was your first major research project?
My first research project at the laboratory was figuring out what pattern cuttlefish decide to put on their backs. So we would put them in these checkerboard arenas & figure out what size of checkerboard causes them to switch between the most common patterns. I suppose my first research project that I was involved in was at all was during my Freshman year of College.
There was a project looking at different populations of these fish called Sand Lance, which are these little fish that a lot of animals eat including Humpback Whales. My job was counting the scales on the sides of Sand Lance to figure out if there were 2 morphologically different populations off the coast of Massachusetts, which was boring. I was also doing Fish Gut analysis on old frozen fish organs, & trying to figure out what the fish had eaten.
4. What attracts you to Squid & how did you discover your passion for them?
I think Squid are so interesting because they have such complex communication systems & behaviors, but they diverged from us evolutionarily so long ago. Over 600 million years ago is the last common ancestor between us & them.
So I think that we have this cool opportunity to look at an animal that evolved on Earth but evolved as independently as another animal could evolve from us. We can see how complexity evolved similarly, like our eyes are very similar to their eyes, or differently with their communication systems. We are using sound to communicate right now, whereas they can’t hear all that well. Some species of cephalopods can hear, but their hearing is not great. They are using color to talk, which I think is just so cool.
5. What is your favorite species of Squid?
I have 2 favorite species of Squid, & I can’t pick one because they are both so weird & lovely, but in much different ways. My first favourite squid is the Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea), I like them because they are really easy to get to. They live around Florida & throughout the Caribbean. They are curious, rainbow-colored, & we have a really good understanding of their color communication system. We understand them pretty well compared to other species of Squid.
My other favorite squid is the Magnapinna Squid, they live the deepest of any Squid. They are the best! They are such strange animals, they are so creepy. I adore their freakishly long legs.
6. Do you have a favorite attribute about Squid?
I like that they have Donut Shaped Brains. You know, I drive the Squid Mobile, I’m fairly identifiable as the Squid Lady, so sometimes people will just yell “Hey give me a Squid Fact!”, & I’ll yell that Squid’s have donut-shaped brains.
One of my other favorite things about Squid that I like to tell people is about this species of Squid called Grimalditeuthis. Grimalditeuthis is a deep sea Squid & what is strange & interesting about them is that a Squid has 8 arms & 2 tentacles, with their tentacles typically only have suckers or hooks at the end. However this squid has a modified tentacle club, that looks like a miniature Squid. So they will puppet that Squid around to attract food, & when something attempts to attack the little Squid, they will attack & eat that animal.
7. How did you get your idea for the Squid Mobile?
The year was 2017, & I was scrolling on Twitter to talk to the other scientists on there. So I saw that one scientist had put a piece of construction paper on their back car window, & it said “Have a question for a scientist? Email yourneighbourhoodfriendlyscientist@gmail.com.”. I kind of loved that, because you don’t have to follow a scientist on social media for people to know that & access that. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I wanted to try it anyway. So I turned my car into the Squid Mobile, & I believe I put a piece of paper saying “Have a Question? Email thesquidscientist@gmail.com”.
Then I realized that I’m asking people to have a question about Squid, & then they need to remember my email address to send me & email. I realized that was kind of a lot of steps to go through, & that I needed to make this easier. That was when I developed the Squid Facts Hotline.
I then changed it to “Ever wonder about Squid? Text this phone number”, & that is when things began to pick up. I later changed it to “Want a Squid Fact? Text Squid to this phone number.”. At the time it was a Google Voice Phone Number, & I was individually replying to everyone.
At some point I was having 10 different conversations every single day & realized it was too much, so I switched to a robot, & now a robot texts everybody back.
8. Do you have any more plans for the Squid Mobile?
I added some Squid recently that will hold up against the winter salt a little better. A friend of mine, Meg Mendlin, an octopus biologist, printed them out & sent them over to me. I like the homemade look of the Squid Mobile, I think it makes it look even more weird & approachable.
I think one of the real problems we have as scientists is that people think that we are so smart that we are not approachable, & that we are intimidating. So, I think making myself quite silly, relaxed, & homemade-looking, really helps.
9. How many Squid are currently on the Squid Mobile?
About 15 to 20 Squid, the majority of which are hand-drawn.
10. How did you get the idea for your “Squid’s Across America Tour”, & how many speeches did you give on it?
At the time I was writing my Phd thesis, & when you are writing your Phd thesis you are sitting in a room for months at a time just writing & researching. I was bored & sort of antsy, & I knew I would be graduating soon. So I put out a message on Twitter stating “Anybody want a talk on science communication or my Squid Research this fall? Here is a general circle of areas I intend to go, if you are in that area please message me”, & 50 people reached out from that. I asked for payment from these people, which whittled it down to 30 groups.
I mainly spoke to University Departments & Nonprofit organizations, & I mostly giving talks about how scientists can better communicate science. I gave a few talks on my Phd thesis as well.
Also, some organizations would ask me to do multiple speeches on both of these things.
11. What was the route that you took & how many states did you travel through?
I started in Connecticut, & drove down to Key West. I spoke at Mote Marine Laboratory along the way, & spoke in every state I traveled through. Then I traveled west to San Diego, gave a talk & San Diego, & gave talks in almost every state along the way. After that, I drove back across through Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessee, & back to Philadelphia.
12. What were your accommodations like on the tour?
I stayed in Roadside Motels, I camped sometimes, & I stayed in the University provided accommodations occasionally. When I was speaking at one of Mote Marine Laboratory, I stayed in the research facility for one night. I stayed all over the place.
13. Do you have a most memorable moment from the “Squid’s Across America Tour”?
When I was going to go on stage to give a talk at Duke, my father called me & told me that my adoption agency had sent me a letter. I thought that it was weird, & that something terrible had happened. So I give the talk & the entire time I am giving the talk I am freaking out. After the talk was done, I ran off the stage into the next building over, & popped into a random conference room. I probably wasn’t allowed to be in that conference room, however I went in anyway.
So I called the Adoption agency & asked them what was up, & they said “Oh, your birth mother wants to meet you”. I told them that I wasn’t in Philadelphia at the time, & took down her contact information. She didn’t pick up my call, so I just continued. My next stop was Georgia, & I don’t believe I had been to Georgia before. I was at the agricultural school there, so I was truly in the middle of nowhere.
I was staying with this really sweet lady, & I feel really bad because I was sort of an emotional wreck at the time. I was staying in between 2 cotton fields, & I was so far out of my comfort zone. So I told her “Hey, I have to call someone, & the next time I see you I might be crying, but everything’s fine, it’s just you’ve met me on a very weird day.”
So I called my birth mother & we talked for about an hour, & made plans to meet up in Philadelphia in November. So that was pretty wild.
14. What Inspired you to begin the Skype-A-Scientist Project?
I had been doing science communication on social media for a couple years at this point, & many scientists were afraid that they had failed to communicate the direness of climate change to the public & politicians. There was a lot of energy going around, & everyone was wondering “What do we do?”. So I was brainstorming ways that we could mobilize scientists to connect with people, & attempt to overcome this problem that I had been trying to figure out how to solve for years.
I thought we should just try it, so I put out 2 forms on social media, one for teachers, & one for scientists. About 500 scientists signed up, & I was curious to see if any teachers would sign up. 800 classrooms signed up in the first month, so I matched them up, & it worked! This was January of 2017 when it started, & I didn’t finish my thesis until August of 2019. By the time those 2 years had passed, I was able to run the thing full-time.
15. What is most fulfilling to you about Skype-A-Scientist?
The freedom to pursue unconventional Science Communication Projects. I run the program & it's amazing, we serve between 5,000 & 10,000 classrooms a year. During the height of the Pandemic, we were serving about 11,000 classrooms. Now we serve closer to 5,000 classrooms a year.
I don’t see the impact of those sessions because I’m not in those sessions, & I know the impact is distributed throughout many many people. I want the most scientists possible from the broadest array of fields to be having these conversations. While it’s good & it's impactful, It doesn’t hit my feelings very much.
16. How many staff does Skype-A-Scientist have?
We have 1 full timer, & 1 part timer.
17. Do you have plans to develop more programs or merchandise for Skype A Scientist?
Just running the existing program that we have is a pretty heavy lift, so we’re not looking to grow because we don’t have the staff to do so. But, I love playing with new things all the time.
Right now we are celebrating Squidtember, which is the month of September when we celebrate Squid. We’re working with OceanX which is an advocacy group, & we made these Squid Zines. So you can learn about Squid in these little zines, I designed them! We’ve never done a zine before, so we’re doing one!
I’m waiting on a second grant to make this project fully work, however, I am looking to hire 5 local artists to do a biodiversity zine for Philadelphia. It is going to be a simple straightforward guide to biodiversity in Philadelphia.
18. What was the most difficult part of starting Skype-A-Scientist?
Learning IRS bureaucratic paperwork is not one of my strong suits. It is not something I am good at, & it makes me paralyzed with fear that I am going to screw something up. I messed up some paperwork however we got that fixed. That is the worst, it is hard & scary.
Every year keeping our organization funded is also quite difficult. I’ve written 10 grants this year & gotten rejected for 2, the rest of them I don’t know the results of yet.
19. What are the murals like?
We’ve done a couple science education community murals. What I love about them, is that we bring people out to these science education projects that do not show up to science events. They don’t think of it as a science event, I believe they think of it as an art event or simply something fun, & it's great. I survey these people when they show up, & when I ask them about how much they know about the topic.
We had one community paint day that was beautiful chaos, where we had 130 people come out to paint this mural. When I look over the survey, a lot of these people can’t even name a single animal in the Delaware River, & that's great. That means that we are hitting people who aren’t already reading science books or following science on social media.
I like getting deeply involved with communities out here in Philadelphia, & it is so fulfilling & I love it a lot.
20. How many murals do you currently have?
We have 2 huge ones in Philadelphia, & one electrical box-sized one in Boston. However, we have street art all over the place, but street art isn’t a mural. From Los Angeles to Australia, to New York. Everywhere I go that has a street art culture already there, I put stickers up.
I’d love to do more murals, I’ve submitted 3 grants over the summer to do murals in 2025. I’m hoping that I’ve written enough in 2024 to support murals in 2025.
My philosophy with murals is that you need to put in a lot of effort before the paint hits the wall, on community engagement. The murals take a lot of time. If there were a group of scientists far away from me who had someone willing to conduct community meetings, gather community input, & vote on what the community wants in the mural, then that would be ideal. We begin the process about 2 months before we start painting because we want to give the artist time to design a quality piece after community input.
The painting itself takes about 3 weeks.
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