Sonke Johnsen

International Deep-Sea Biological Society · 2021 this award recognizes the best paper in the field of deep-sea biology and is awarded at an international meeting. this was for a paper on ultra-black camouflage published in 2020, first-authored by my current grad student and co-senior-authored by me.

top 50 Publication in chemistry or materials science

International Nature Communications journal · 2021 this was for a paper on ultra-black camouflage published in 2020, first-authored by my current grad student and co-senior-authored by me.

News Items

Published July 13, 2026

What the Deep, Dark Sea Teaches Us About Light

Published June 16, 2025

Summer Reading: Duke Authors’ Hot New Books

Published February 24, 2025

The Biology Professor on an Unusual Career Path in ‘Freedom to Fail’ Series

Published December 1, 2024

To Build Better Fiber Optic Cables, Ask a Clam

Published March 19, 2024

Duke Awards 32 New Distinguished Professorships for 2024

Published November 29, 2023

Brittle Stars Can Learn Just Fine -- Even Without a Brain

Published August 22, 2023

This Fish Doesn’t Just See With Its Eyes -- It Also Sees With Its Skin.

Published January 3, 2023

Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Become Transparent

Published December 9, 2022

Duke Research Blog

Traveling With Friends Helps Even Mixed-Up Migrators Find Their Way

Published November 5, 2020

Check This Out! Watch Whales Catch Their Favorite Food By Blowing Bubbles

Published July 16, 2020

Ultra-Black Skin Allows Some Fish to Lurk Unseen

Published July 13, 2020

Green is More Than Skin-Deep for Hundreds of Frog Species

Published March 10, 2020

To Make Ultra-Black Materials That Won’t Weigh Things Down, Consider the Butterfly

Published February 24, 2020

Solar Storms Could Scramble Whales' Navigational Sense

Published June 24, 2019

CNN

Monsters from the Deep: Duke-Led Research Team Captures Rare Video of Giant Squid

Published September 18, 2018

Duke Arts

Portrait of a Scientist as a Photographer

Published June 8, 2018

Interdisciplinary Studies

Project on Color Vision of Shrimp Helps Biology Students See Data Science in New Light

Published May 30, 2018

Details That Look Sharp to People May be Blurry to Their Pets

Published April 23, 2018

National Geographic

How Deep-Sea Fish Are So Exceptionally Black

Published March 12, 2018

How the Color-Changing Hogfish Sees With Its Skin

Published February 13, 2017

Mismatched Eyes Help Squid Survive Oceans Twilight Zone

Published November 3, 2016

Midwater Ocean Creatures Use Nanotech Camouflage

Published August 23, 2016

In the Ocean, Clever Camouflage Beats Super Sight

Published August 23, 2016

Cosmos Magazine

Sonke Johnsen: In the ocean, invisibility trumps ultra-vision

Published May 18, 2016

Science News

Sönke Johnsen: Some animals ‘see’ the world through oddball eyes

Published February 29, 2016

Black Widows: Obvious to Predators, Stealthy to Prey

Published January 8, 2016

Science Daily

Post-exercise fog muddies a see-through shrimp’s cloak of invisibility

Published December 2, 2015

Camouflaged Cuttlefish Employ Electrical Stealth

Published April 1, 2015

Johnsen's Book wins PROSE Award

Published August 19, 2014

The New York Times

Sönke Johnsen explores a world of creatures that hide in the open