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This is a

This is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagata.

Mucus is a miraculous substance.

It's in our noses, of course, but it also helps us swallow and it

lubricates our eyes so we can blink. But it's not just us. Mucus is ubiquitous in the

oceans too. Fish are covered in mucus.

There are parrot fish, for example,

that excrete mucous balloons around their head,

presumably to protect them from predators or parasites.

Kakani Kateeja, a bioengineer at the Monare Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

She's interested in the mucous creations of another creature called a larvation.

Actually, I wonder if I have one in my bag now.

She means a 3D printed one, not a real one.

Katiga says that larvations look a lot like tadpoles, and even the ones called giant

larvations are only about four inches long.

But they excrete these spectacular mucous structures around them, shaped almost like a neck pillow you'd bring on a plane, but with

ridges and baffles running through them. These snot palaces, as some people actually

call them, help the animals filter ocean waters for food.

Katiga's team sent a robot diving in California's Monore Bay

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