When did Scott Westerfeld create Uglies?

Uglies is a 2005 science fiction novel by Scott Westerfeld. It is set in a future post scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an "ugly", but then turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her newfound friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "Pretty".

Uglies

Written for young adults, "Uglies" deals with themes of change, both emotional and physical. The book is the first installment in what was originally a trilogy, the "Uglies" series, which also includes the books "Pretties", "Specials", and "Extras". In 2018, four new installments within the Uglies Universe were announced, to be titled the Imposters Series.

Three hundred years in the future, the government provides for everything, including plastic surgery operations. Everyone on their sixteenth birthday receives the “pretty” operation which transforms them into the society's standard of beautiful. After the operation, new Pretties cross the river that divides the city and lead a new life with no responsibilities or obligations. There are two other operations available, one to transform Pretties into “Middle-Pretties” (adults with a job), and another to transform Middle-Pretties into "Crumblies".

Former cities have decayed after bacteria infected the world's petroleum, making it unstable. The old society, so dependent on oil, fell apart when cars and oil fields exploded and food could no longer be transported. People who lived before this catastrophe are called "Rusties."

Tally Youngblood is almost sixteen. Like every other Ugly, she awaits the operation with great anticipation. Her best friend, Peris, has already had the operation and, motivated by her desire to see him, Tally sneaks across the river to New Pretty Town. There she meets Shay, another Ugly. They become friends and Shay teaches Tally how to ride a hoverboard. Shay also mentions rebelling against the operation. At first, Tally ignores the idea, but is forced to deal with it when Shay runs away a few days before their shared sixteenth birthday, leaving behind cryptic directions to her destination, a “renegade settlement” called the Smoke, where city runaways go to escape the operation.

On the day of Tally’s operation, she is taken to Special Circumstances, a division that is likened to “gremlins” and, “[blamed] when anything weird happens." Dr. Cable, a woman who is described as “a cruel pretty”, is the head of Special Circumstances. She gives Tally an ultimatum to either help locate Shay and the Smoke, or never become a pretty. Tally cooperates and Dr. Cable gives her a hoverboard and all the needed supplies to survive in the wild, along with a heart locket that contains a tracking device. Once activated, it will show the location of the Smoke to Special Circumstances. Following Shay's clues, Tally sets off to find her friend.

When Tally arrives at the Smoke, she finds Shay, her friend David and an entire community of runaway Uglies. She is reluctant to activate the pendant and it eventually becomes clear that David is in love with her. David takes her to meet his parents, Maddy and Az, who are the original runaways from the city. They explain how the operation does more than “cosmetic nipping and tucking.” It also causes lesions in the brain to make the people placid, or “pretty-minded.” Horrified, Tally decides to keep the Smoke secret and throws the locket into a fire. However, the flames' heat causes the tracker to activate, giving away the Smoke’s location.

The following morning, Special Circumstances arrives at the camp and Tally makes an effort to escape. She does not succeed and is caught and taken to a rabbit pen, where other caught Smokies are kept, tied up. Eye scans are taken of all the captured Smokies, identifying from which city they fled. Tally is then taken to Dr. Cable, who explains how they found the Smoke. Dr. Cable thinks Tally purposefully activated the pendant. After being ordered to retrieve the pendant, Tally escapes on a hoverboard. After a long and stressful chase, she manages to hide in a cave where they cannot track her heat signature. There she finds David also hiding and together, they begin to plan a rescue.

Tally and David go back to his house, where they find evidence that Special Circumstances took Maddy and Az. David leads Tally to a secret stash of survival equipment where they find everything they need, and load them onto the four hoverboards stashed there. As Tally and David travel back to the city to free their friends, they fall in love. Arriving at the Special Circumstances complex, they discover that Shay has already been “turned” and is now a Pretty. After meeting Dr. Cable, David knocks her out and takes her work tablet, which contains all the necessary information to reverse the brain lesions created by the Pretty operation. Tally and David then free all the Smokies held in the complex. As they escape the complex, Maddy tells David that his father, Az, is dead.

Once everyone is safe, Maddy begins working on a cure using Dr. Cable’s tablet. She then offers it to Shay, who refuses, not wanting to become a “vegetable.” Since Tally feels responsible for her betrayal, she decides to become a Pretty and take the cure as a “willing subject”. To convince David to let her go back to the city, she tells him about her involvement with Special Circumstances and searching for the Smoke to betray them. While David is absorbing what Tally admitted, Maddy advises Tally to go back with Shay before she changes her mind. Once there, Tally announces to a Middle Pretty, “I’m Tally Youngblood. Make me pretty,” the final phrase of the novel.According to critics, Uglies contains themes of identity, particularly regarding teenagers. Phillip Gough said the government of Tally’s city, which controls what happens within the operation, “removes responsibility for identity, ” creating sameness and uniformity. By placing heavy emphasis on the role of individualism, the novel shows the importance of teen’s self-concept. Because identity is formed by “displacement,” and all citizens are carefully sheltered, there is no chance for them to branch out into independence. “Physical identity is determined by committees," noted Gough in his essay discussing Westerfeld’s novel. Due to the lack of choice, all “markers of physical identity” are destroyed by their government.

Kristi N. Scott and M. Heather Dragoo note that another recurring theme in the “image-obsessed society,” is beauty, and its recurring relationship with individuality. Gough agreed, commenting that “when everyone is equal, beauty loses its meaning”. Beauty went hand in hand with identity: Uglies were taught to think of their bodies and faces as “temporary”, something that would be replaced later with cosmetic surgery. A strong line is drawn to connect features with personality, and one critic stated that the characters develop “ugly” and “pretty” personalities with each stage of their operations.

A “utopia resting on ruthless suppression of individual freedom” was Amanda Craig of The Times’s description of Tally’s city. Many critics identified the trend of a controlling government in the novel. People in the protagonist’s world are “programmed and designed by the Pretty committee, ” with no say-so in their operation, and identity is placed firmly “in the hands of the state”. Dragoo and Scott point out how segregated the city is, with Pretties, Uglies, Middlies, and Crumblies neatly divided into different sections. Many reviewers have commented on the way in which the city manipulates its inhabitants, including the supposedly rebellious uglies, who are nothing more than “docile bodies”. Bedies, the dystopian society depicted by Westerfeld includes a particularly common trope in the genre: the duality of spaces, the metropolis representing the totalitarian civilization and nature as a field for freedom.

Various critics also found a theme of humanity within Uglies. Phillip Gough noted that Pretties and Specials (those who worked for Special Circumstances) are “posthuman” because of their operations. Others, including Scott and Dragoo, argued against this, claiming “the human body provides an artistic and political canvas for intentional manipulation," and that this physical transformation can be an “outlet for humanity”. The novel Uglies seems to take no definite stance on it, though clearer points are shown in Pretties and Specials, the following books in the trilogy.

When asked how he came up with the idea of "Uglies," Westerfeld said, "the inspiration came from a friend whose dentist asked him to consider getting cosmetic surgery." He is the son of a computer programmer for Univac, which meant he grew up familiar with the cutting edge of 1960s technology. Amanda Craig said that "it is his prescient perception of how such inventions will lead to absolute loss of privacy which has elicited as much fan-mail as the issue of how looks dominate our lives."

The book shares many themes with the 1964 "The Twilight Zone" episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You". The author of the books noted that he saw the episode in his childhood but had forgotten the details.

In the dedication page for Uglies, Westerfeld says: “This novel was shaped by a series of e-mail exchanges between myself and Ted Chiang about his story “Liking What You See: A Documentary.” His input on the manuscript was also invaluable.” In another interview, Westerfeld says that this documentary is about a new technology that enables an individual to turn off their ability to see beauty so they can focus on the deeper and more important parts of another individual. In a 2012 interview on Bookyurt, Westerfeld explained that his point in writing the book was not to make a big commentary on the issues with beauty, but to make people aware of the culture of retouching that is developing in the world and to be aware of our own ideas about beauty and our need to think for ourselves.

The novel has received mostly positive reviews. The Baroque Body praised the novel as having “creative slang, unique technical gadgets, and defining characteristics of personhood.” Cory Doctorow complimented its “perfect parables of adolescent life,” and stated that it is “fine science fiction for youth." Jennifer Mattson claimed it to be “ingenious. ” Reed Business Information praised the “convincing plot” and noted that it is “highly readable.”

However, "Publishers Weekly" commented that Tally was a “rather passive protagonist,” and the United Kingdom Times complained that “Tally herself is a bit too vague as a character.” Critic Jennifer Mattson noted that the brisk pace of the novel as being “bad for convincing relationships.”

The novel sparked discussion over the use of plastic surgery to improve one's looks. The author said he has “received many letters from girls who have decided against having surgery since reading Uglies,” while others, sparked by Uglies, have started to ponder the ethics of changing your body’s appearance. Westerfeld has theorized that “having extreme cosmetic surgery will be like buying a $1,000 Gucci bag, an indication that you are a member of the privileged class." Critics echo his opinion. However, Westerfeld has also stated he “wouldn’t hesitate [to use plastic surgery] if he had a kid with port-wine stain. We have all been altering our appearances ever since clothing was invented.” Other critics have stated that while altering one's appearance with plastic surgery can be ethically debatable, the benefits of it to people who have need for it are tremendous.

There is also some moderate debate sparked by Uglies over the issue of monitoring people. The state has started to track teens through their cell phones and on occasion through dental implants. Westerfeld feels that this will “result in a total loss of privacy,” however, others feel that this technology is necessary to properly supervise people.

20th Century Fox and producer John Davis ("Eragon") bought the film rights to the novel in 2006. The movie was originally supposed to be released in 2011, according to the Internet Movie Database, but the release date was pushed back.

The movie "Uglies" was once again in the works as of July 3, 2013.
Steven Cummings illustrated Uglies in a manga-style graphic novel written by Westerfeld and Devin K. Grayson called Shay's Story which tells the story from Shay's perspective. It was published in a black-and-white 5¾ x 8¼ inches format by Del Rey Manga in 2012.

The novel "Uglies" was first published in 2006, and re-released in 2011 with a new cover. It is the first part of a trilogy, with sequels "Pretties", and "Specials", and another book "Extras". The trilogy featured on the New York Times bestseller list for a significant amount of time. There has also been an audio recording made of the book (published in 2006), available on both CD and cassette.

Pretties is a 2005 science fiction novel and the second book of the "Uglies" Trilogy written by Scott Westerfeld. It is set in a future dystopian world in which everyone is turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery upon reaching age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity.

Pretties

The book begins with Tally, the main protagonist, as a Pretty debating what to wear to a bash. While attending the bash at which she is to be voted into the "Crims" clique, she is followed by someone who appears to be a "Special", a member of Special Circumstances. She soon finds him and discovers its Croy, a Smokey she knew before she turned pretty. He then told her that he left a note for Tally somewhere in Valentino Mansion.Then he went back to The Smoke and Tally tried to follow him by pushing Peris off the balcony where he bungee bounced, and kneed her head hard enough to make her bleed and was voted into the Crims by the bubbly movement.

Tally returns to her care-free life as a Pretty. Her peace is disrupted when Zane, who is the leader of the Crims, asks her about David, whom she loved while she lived in the Smoke. Zane and Tally kiss and fall in love.

Zane had once known Croy and had been determined to escape to the Smoke before his surgery. He regrets that he didn't go into the wilderness then. Zane is eager to accompany Tally to find the object Croy has hidden for her. They face strenuous, dangerous physical challenges in order to locate the item, which is accompanied by a letter from Tally to herself, written before she went under the knife. The letter explained to her future self why she had become a Pretty – to take two pills that will cure her from the foggy-headed life of a Pretty. Tally was afraid to take the pills alone so she and Zane split it right before Special Circumstances came and gave them cuffs like interface rings, but they can't come off.

After taking the pills Zane starts getting bad headaches, but he seems to be more cured than Tally. Then one day the Crims pull a bubbly trick by using alcohol to melt a hovering ice rink and crash a soccer game, causing the clique to become famous. Later that night at the bonfire, Shay and Tally get into a huge fight causing Shay to turn on Tally. After that Dr. Cable offers Tally a job as a Special, which she immediately turns down.

When Tally and Zane go to Uglyville they find Sussy and Dex, two uglies who helped Tally and David back when she was a Smokey. Tally takes Zane to the hospital but soon finds out that Shay has started a clique with Crim rejects called Cutters, where they cut themselves to cure the lesions.

Zane and Tally soon get to decide to escape the city with a few other Crims. Fausto helps Zane and Tally get the cuff off, and they soon escape the city by hoverboarding out of a hot-air balloon.

Peris, Tally's friend from her Ugly days, decides in the balloon that he does not want to go to the New Smoke. He stalls for Tally, and she falls into a reservation with rather primitive people who seem to be very violent. She is considered a god there because of her beauty. There she meets Andrew Simpson Smith, the village holy man, who is the only one who speaks her language, which they call the language of the gods, with significant fluency. Andrew tries to help her reach the Rusty Ruins, though he says that they are beyond the end of the world. Through their travels, Tally comes to deduce that the villagers are living in a forcefield-protected reservation where Specials and Pretty Scientists conduct experiments about violence and ways to reduce mankind's violent nature. During this time, Tally starts to wonder if Dr. Cable's words to her have some truth - perhaps the Pretty operation that clouds everyone's minds is the only way that humans can live in peace, without destroying each other or the planet.

Tally steals a hovercar from the visiting scientists to escape to the Rusty Ruins. When she calls, she sees someone coming down on a hover board and is shocked to find that it is David who has come to take her to the New Smoke. When she arrives, Maddy tells her that the pills she and Zane took separately were meant to be taken together. One of the pills contained the nanos that were supposed to eat away the lesions, but they ate more of Zane’s brain tissue than the lesions because they needed the pill that Tally took to stop them. Tally, in fact, cured herself, since the pill that she took only stopped nanos; it did not contain nanos itself to heal the lesions.

They soon discover that, when Zane went to the hospital for his headaches, a tracker chip was put in his tooth. Tally decides to stay with Zane instead of escaping with David. David believes that she only loves Zane because he is a Pretty. To make David leave and not get caught himself, Tally tells him to "get his ugly face out of here". It has the desired result and he flees. She stays with Zane which leads to her getting caught by the Specials along with Fausto. She discovers Shay has been turned into a Special. The book ends with Shay saying 'face it Tally-wa, you're special'.


Is the cuttlefish a mollusk?

Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone.

Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from, with the largest species, "Sepia apama", reaching in mantle length and over in mass.

Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopus, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. The average life expectancy of a cuttlefish is about 1–2 years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates. Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.

The "cuttle" in cuttlefish comes from the Old English name for the species, "cudele", which may be cognate with the Old Norse "koddi" (cushion) and the Middle Low German "Kudel" (rag). The Greco-Roman world valued the cuttlefish as a source of the unique brown pigment the creature releases from its siphon when it is alarmed. The word for it in both Greek and Latin, "sepia", now refers to the reddish-brown color sepia in English.

The earliest sepia-like fossils of cuttlefish are from the Cretaceous period. Whether the earlier "Trachyteuthis" is assigned to this class, or to the Octopodiformes, remains unclear.

The family Sepiidae, which contains all cuttlefish, inhabits tropical and temperate ocean waters. They are mostly shallow-water animals, although they are known to go to depths of about. They have an unusual biogeographic pattern: they are present along the coasts of East and South Asia, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, as well as all coasts of Africa and Australia, but are totally absent from the Americas. By the time the family evolved, ostensibly in the Old World, the North Atlantic possibly had become too cold and deep for these warm-water species to cross.
The common cuttlefish ("Sepia officinalis"), is found in the Mediterranean, North, and Baltic Seas, although populations may occur as far south as South Africa. They are found in sublittoral depths, between the low tide line and the edge of the continental shelf, to about 180 m (100 fathoms)." The cuttlefish is listed under the Red List category of "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This means that while some over-exploitation of the marine animal has occurred in some regions due to large-scale commercial fishing, their wide geographic range prevents them from being too threatened. Ocean acidification, however, caused largely by higher levels of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, is cited as a potential threat.

Cuttlefish, like other cephalopods, have sophisticated eyes. The organogenesis and the final structure of the cephalopod eye fundamentally differ from those of vertebrates such as humans.
Superficial similarities between cephalopod and vertebrate eyes are thought to be examples of convergent evolution. The cuttlefish pupil is a smoothly curving W-shape. Although cuttlefish cannot see color, they can perceive the polarization of light, which enhances their perception of contrast. They have two spots of concentrated sensor cells on their retinas (known as foveae), one to look more forward, and one to look more backward. The eye changes focus by shifting the position of the entire lens with respect to the retina, instead of reshaping the lens as in mammals. Unlike the vertebrate eye, no blind spot exists, because the optic nerve is positioned below the retina. This allows cuttlefish to see in front of them and behind them at the same time.

The cuttlefish's eyes are thought to be fully developed before birth, and they start observing their surroundings while still in the egg. In consequence, they may prefer to hunt the prey they saw before hatching.

The blood of a cuttlefish is an unusual shade of green-blue, because it uses the copper-containing protein haemocyanin to carry oxygen instead of the red, iron-containing protein haemoglobin found in vertebrates' blood. The blood is pumped by three separate hearts: two branchial hearts pump blood to the cuttlefish's pair of gills (one heart for each), and the third pumps blood around the rest of the body. Cuttlefish blood must flow more rapidly than that of most other animals because haemocyanin carries substantially less oxygen than haemoglobin. Unlike most other mollusks, cephalopods like cuttlefish have a closed circulatory system.

Cuttlefish possess an internal structure called the cuttlebone, which is porous and is made of aragonite. The pores provide it with buoyancy, which the cuttlefish regulates by changing the gas-to-liquid ratio in the chambered cuttlebone via the ventral siphuncle. Each species' cuttlebone has a distinct shape, size, and pattern of ridges or texture. The cuttlebone is unique to cuttlefish, and is one of the features that distinguish them from their squid relatives.

Like other marine mollusks, cuttlefish have ink stores that are used for chemical deterrence, phagomimicry, sensory distraction, and evasion when attacked. The composition of the ink leads to a richly colored "black" ink which is rich in ammonium salts and amino acids that may have a role in phagomimicry defenses.

The use of this color is wide-ranged. A common use is in cooking with squid ink to darken and flavor rice and pasta. It is purported to add a sweet flavor to the food, and leaves the food stained a dark black color. In addition to food, cuttlefish ink can be used with plastics and staining of materials. The diverse composition of cuttlefish ink, and its deep complexity of colors, allows for dilution and modification of its color. Cuttlefish ink can be used to make noniridescent reds, blues, and greens,

The suckers of cuttlefish extend most of the length of their arms and along the distal portion of their tentacles. Like other cephalopods, cuttlefish have "taste-by-touch" sensitivity in their suckers, allowing them to discriminate among objects and water currents that they contact.

Some cuttlefish are venomous. The genes for venom production are thought to be descended from a common ancestor. The muscles of the flamboyant cuttlefish ("Metasepia pfefferi") contain a highly toxic, unidentified compound as lethal as that of a fellow cephalopod, the blue-ringed octopus.

Male cuttlefish challenge one another for dominance and the best den during mating season. During this challenge, no direct contact is usually made. The animals threaten each other until one of them backs down and swims away. Eventually, the larger male cuttlefish mate with the females by grabbing them with their tentacles, turning the female so that the two animals are face-to-face, then using a specialized tentacle to insert sperm sacs into an opening near the female's mouth. The male then guards the female until she lays the eggs a few hours later.

On occasion, a large competitor arrives to threaten the male cuttlefish. In these instances, the male first attempts to intimidate the other male. If the competitor does not flee, the male eventually attacks it to force it away. The cuttlefish that can paralyze the other first, by forcing near its mouth, wins the fight and the female. Since typically four or five (and sometimes as many as 10) males are available for every female, this behavior is inevitable.

Cuttlefish are indeterminate growers, so smaller cuttlefish always have a chance at finding a mate the next year when they are bigger. Additionally, cuttlefish unable to win in a direct confrontation with a guard male have been observed employing several other tactics to acquire a mate. The most successful of these methods is camouflage; smaller cuttlefish use their camouflage abilities to disguise themselves as a female cuttlefish. Changing their body color, and even pretending to be holding an egg sack, disguised males are able to swim past the larger guard male and mate with the female.

Cephalopods are able to communicate visually using a diverse range of signals. To produce these signals, cephalopods can vary four types of communication element: chromatic (skin coloration), skin texture (e.g. rough or smooth), posture, and locomotion. Changes in body appearance such as these are sometimes called polyphenism. The common cuttlefish can display 34 chromatic, six textural, eight postural and six locomotor elements, whereas flamboyant cuttlefish use between 42 and 75 chromatic, 14 postural, and seven textural and locomotor elements. For the Caribbean reef squid ("Sepioteuthis sepioidea"), they are thought to have up to 35 distinct signalling states.

Cuttlefish are sometimes referred to as the "chameleons of the sea" because of their ability to rapidly alter their skin color – this can occur within one second. Cuttlefish change color and pattern (including the polarization of the reflected light waves), and the shape of the skin to communicate to other cuttlefish, to camouflage themselves, and as a deimatic display to warn off potential predators. Under some circumstances, cuttlefish can be trained to change color in response to stimuli, thereby indicating their color changing is not completely innate.

Cuttlefish can also affect the light's polarization, which can be used to signal to other marine animals, many of which can also sense polarization, as well as being able to influence the color of light as it reflects off their skin. Although cuttlefish (and most other cephalopods) lack color vision, high-resolution polarisation vision may provide an alternative mode of receiving contrast information that is just as defined. The cuttlefish's wide pupil attenuates chromatic aberration, allowing it to perceive color by focusing specific wavelengths onto the retina.

The three broad categories of color patterns are uniform, mottle, and disruptive. Cuttlefish can display as many as 12 to 14 patterns, 13 of which have been categorized as seven "acute" (relatively brief) and six "chronic" (long-lasting) patterns. although other researchers suggest the patterns occur on a continuum.
The color-changing ability of cuttlefish is due to multiple types of cells. These are arranged (from the skin's surface going deeper) as pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective iridophores and below them, leucophores.

The chromatophores are sacs containing hundreds of thousands of pigment granules and a large membrane that is folded when retracted. Hundreds of muscles radiate from the chromatophore. These are under neural control and when they expand, they reveal the hue of the pigment contained in the sac. Cuttlefish have three types of chromatophore: yellow/orange (the uppermost layer), red, and brown/black (the deepest layer). The cuttlefish can control the contraction and relaxation of the muscles around individual chromatophores, thereby opening or closing the elastic sacs and allowing different levels of pigment to be exposed. Furthermore, the chromatophores contain luminescent protein nanostructures in which tethered pigment granules modify light through absorbance, reflection, and fluorescence between 650 and 720 nm.

For cephalopods in general, the hues of the pigment granules are relatively constant within a species, but can vary slightly between species. For example, the common cuttlefish and the opalescent inshore squid ("Loligo opalescens") have yellow, red, and brown, the European common squid ("Alloteuthis subulata") has yellow and red, and the common octopus has yellow, orange, red, brown, and black.

In cuttlefish, activation of a chromatophore can expand its surface area by 500%. Up to 200 chromatophores per mm of skin may occur. In "Loligo plei", an expanded chromatophore may be up to 1.5 mm in diameter, but when retracted, it can measure as little as 0.1 mm.

Retracting the chromatophores reveals the iridophores and leucophores beneath them, thereby allowing cuttlefish to use another modality of visual signalling brought about by structural coloration.
Iridophores are structures that produce iridescent colors with a metallic sheen. They reflect light using plates of crystalline chemochromes made from guanine. When illuminated, they reflect iridescent colors because of the diffraction of light within the stacked plates. Orientation of the schemochrome determines the nature of the color observed. By using biochromes as colored filters, iridophores create an optical effect known as Tyndall or Rayleigh scattering, producing bright blue or blue-green colors. Iridophores vary in size, but are generally smaller than 1 mm. Squid at least are able to change their iridescence. This takes several seconds or minutes, and the mechanism is not understood. However, iridescence can also be altered by expanding and retracting the chromatophores above the iridophores. Because chromatophores are under direct neural control from the brain, this effect can be immediate.

Cephalopod iridophores polarize light. Cephalopods have a rhabdomeric visual system which means they are visually sensitive to polarized light. Cuttlefish use their polarization vision when hunting for silvery fish (their scales polarize light). Female cuttlefish exhibit a greater number of polarized light displays than males and also alter their behavior when responding to polarized patterns. The use of polarized reflective patterns has led some to suggest that cephalopods may communicate intraspecifically in a mode that is "hidden" or "private" because many of their predators are insensitive to polarized light.

Leucophores, usually located deeper in the skin than iridophores, are also structural reflectors using crystalline purines, often guanine, to reflect light. Unlike iridophores, however, leucophores have more organized crystals that reduce diffraction. Given a source of white light, they produce a white shine, in red they produce red, and in blue they produce blue. Leucophores assist in camouflage by providing light areas during background matching (e.g. by resembling light-colored objects in the environment) and disruptive coloration (by making the body appear to be composed of high-contrasting patches).

The reflectance spectra of cuttlefish patterns and several natural substrates (stipple, mottle, disruptive) can be measured using an optic spectrometer.

Cuttlefish sometimes use their color patterns to signal future intent to other cuttlefish. For example, during agonistic encounters, male cuttlefish adopt a pattern called the intense zebra pattern, considered to be an honest signal. If a male is intending to attack, it adopts a "dark face" change, otherwise, it remains pale.

In at least one species, female cuttlefish react to their own reflection in a mirror and to other females by displaying a body pattern called "splotch". However, they do not use this display in response to males, inanimate objects, or prey. This indicates they are able to discriminate same-sex conspecifics, even when human observers are unable to discern the sex of a cuttlefish in the absence of sexual dimorphism.

Female cuttlefish signal their receptivity to mating using a display called precopulatory grey. Male cuttlefish sometimes use deception toward guarding males to mate with females. Small males hide their sexually dimorphic fourth arms, change their skin pattern to the mottled appearance of females, and change the shape of their arms to mimic those of nonreceptive, egg-laying females.

Displays on one side of a cuttlefish can be independent of the other side of the body; males can display courtship signals to females on one side while simultaneously showing female-like displays with the other side to stop rival males interfering with their courtship.

The deimatic display (a rapid change to black and white with dark ‘eyespots’ and contour, and spreading of the body and fins) is used to startle small fish that are unlikely to prey on the cuttlefish, but use the flamboyant display towards larger, more dangerous fish, and give no display at all to chemosensory predators such as crabs and dogfish.

One dynamic pattern shown by cuttlefish is dark mottled waves apparently repeatedly moving down the body of the animals. This has been called the passing cloud pattern. In the common cuttlefish, this is primarily observed during hunting, and is thought to communicate to potential prey – “stop and watch me” – which some have interpreted as a type of "hypnosis".

Cuttlefish are able to rapidly change the color of their skin to match their surroundings and create chromatically complex patterns, despite their inability to perceive color, through some mechanism which is not completely understood. They have been seen to have the ability to assess their surroundings and match the color, contrast and texture of the substrate even in nearly total darkness.

The color variations in the mimicked substrate and animal skin are similar. Depending on the species, the skin of cuttlefish responds to substrate changes in distinctive ways. By changing naturalistic backgrounds, the camouflage responses of different species can be measured. "Sepia officinalis" changes color to match the substrate by disruptive patterning (contrast to break up the outline), whereas "S. pharaonis" matches the substrate by blending in. Although camouflage is achieved in different ways, and in an absence of color vision, both species change their skin colors to match the substrate. Cuttlefish adapt their own camouflage pattern in ways that are specific for a particular habitat. An animal could settle in the sand and appear one way, with another animal a few feet away in a slightly different microhabitat, settled in algae for example, will be camouflaged quite differently.

Cuttlefish are also able to change the texture of their skin. The skin contains bands of circular muscle which as they contract, push fluid up. These can be seen as little spikes, bumps, or flat blades. This can help with camouflage when the cuttlefish becomes texturally as well as chromatically similar to objects in its environment such as kelp or rocks.

While the preferred diet of cuttlefish is crabs and fish, they feed on small shrimp shortly after hatching.

Cuttlefish use their camouflage to hunt and sneak up on their prey. They swim at the bottom, where shrimp and crabs are found, and shoot out a jet of water to uncover the prey buried in the sand. Then when the prey tries to escape, the cuttlefish open their eight arms and shoot out two long feeding tentacles to grab them. Each arm has a pad covered in suckers, which grabs and pulls prey toward its beak, paralyzing it with venom before eating it. To achieve a hypnotic effect and stun prey before catching it, cuttlefish are also known to change color rapidly.

Over 120 species of cuttlefish are currently recognised, grouped into five genera. The Sepiadariidae contain seven species and two genera; all the rest are in the Sepiidae.Cuttlefish are caught for food in the Mediterranean, East Asia, the English Channel, and elsewhere.

In East Asia, dried, shredded cuttlefish is a popular snack food. In the Qing Dynasty manual of Chinese gastronomy, the "Suiyuan shidan", the roe of the cuttlefish is considered a difficult-to-prepare, but sought-after delicacy.

Cuttlefish are quite popular in Europe. For example, in northeast Italy, they are used in "risotto al nero di seppia" (risotto with cuttlefish ink), also found in Croatia and Montenegro as "crni rižot" (black risotto). Catalan cuisine, especially that of the coastal regions, uses cuttlefish and squid ink in a variety of "tapas" and dishes such as "arròs negre". Breaded and deep-fried cuttlefish is a popular dish in Andalusia. In Portugal, cuttlefish is present in many popular dishes. "Chocos com tinta" (cuttlefish in black ink), for example, is grilled cuttlefish in a sauce of its own ink. Cuttlefish is also popular in the region of Setúbal, where it is served as deep-fried strips or in a variant of "feijoada", with white beans. Black pasta is often made using cuttlefish ink.

Cuttlefish ink was formerly an important dye, called sepia. Today, artificial dyes have mostly replaced natural sepia.

Cuttlebone has been used since antiquity to make casts for metal. A model is pushed into the cuttlebone and removed, leaving an impression. Molten gold, silver or pewter can then be poured into the cast.

Research into replicating biological color-changing has led to engineering artificial chromatophores out of small devices known as dielectric elastomer actuators. Engineers at the University of Bristol have engineered soft materials that mimic the color-changing skin of animals like cuttlefish, paving the way for "smart clothing" and camouflage applications.
Though cuttlefish are rarely kept as pets, due in part to their fairly short lifetimes, the most common to be kept are "Sepia officinalis" or "Sepia bandensis".

Cuttlebone is given to parakeets and other cagebirds as a source of dietary calcium.


How much protein is in human breast milk?

Breast milk also contains much more protein than cow's milk. It contains 60% protein whereas cow’s milk contains only 40% protein. Protein is very important for infants because they need more protein per pound than adults do. For the first few months of their life, this protein must come from breast milk or formula, it cannot come from cow's milk. One specific protein that breast milk has is lactoferrin, which is bacteriostatic, meaning it prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. Without protein, the baby cannot produce the immunity that its body desperately needs, resulting in a higher risk of disease and malnutrition. Breast milk provides the best source of protein for an infant.

Infant nutrition

Infant Nutrition is the description of the dietary needs of infants. A diet lacking essential calories, minerals, vitamins, or fluids is considered inadequate. Breast milk provides the best nutrition for these vital first months of growth when compared to formula. For example, breastfeeding aids in preventing anemia, obesity, and sudden infant death syndrome; and it promotes digestive health, immunity, and intelligence. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively feeding an infant breast milk, or iron fortified formula, for the first twelve months of life. Infants are usually not introduced to solid foods until four to six months of age. Historically, breastfeeding infants was the only option for nutrition otherwise the infant would parish. Breastfeeding is rarely contraindicated, but is not recommended for mothers being treated for cancer, those with active tuberculosis, HIV, substance abuse, or leukemia. Clinicians can be consulted to determine what is best for each baby.

Proper infant nutrition demands providing essential substances that support normal growth, functioning, development, and resistance to infections and diseases. Optimal nutrition can be achieved by deciding to breastfeed or bottle-feed the infant before birth and preparing for either decision.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization currently recommend feeding infants only breast milk for the first six months of life. If the infant is being fed formula, it must be iron-enriched. An infant that receives exclusively breast milk for the first six months rarely needs additional vitamins or minerals. However, vitamins D and B12 may be needed if the breastfeeding mother does not have a proper intake of these vitamins. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests all infants, breastfed or not, take a vitamin D supplement within the first days of life to prevent a deficiency or rickets. Exclusively breastfed infants will also require an iron supplement after four months, because the iron is depleted at this point from the breast milk.

It is important to know that some foods are restricted for infants. For example, whether breast- or bottle-fed, infants do not need additional fluids during the first four months of life. Excessive intake of extra fluids or supplements can have harmful effects. Fluids besides human breast milk or iron-enriched formula are not recommended. These substitutes, such as milk, juice, and water do not require what the infant needs to grow and develop, cannot be digested correctly, and have a high risk of being contaminated. Water is acceptable only for mixing formula. Honey also must be avoided because there is a high risk of botulism. Breast milk is the safest thing to give, unless the mother is advised against it by a health care professional.

The frequency of breastfeeding varies amongst each mother-infant pair. Contributing factors are the age, weight, maturity, stomach capacity, and gastric emptying of the infant; as well as the storage capacity the mother has of breast milk. Typically, feedings occur eight to twelve times per day for breastfed infants. Early on, infants may not signal when they are hungry, so parents are taught to feed the infant every three hours during the day and every four hours during the night, even if waking the infant is required. The feedings will last 30-40 minutes in the beginning, or 15-20 minutes per breast if breastfeeding. As the infant matures, the feeding times shorten. Feeding often is important to promote normal growth, development, and milk production in mothers who are breastfeeding.

Solid foods should not be introduced until four to six months of age. This is delayed because the infant is not able to digest solid foods properly. Infants are born with a reflex to suck milk in, they do not have the ability to push food away. So, if solids are given, it is considered forced feeding. Giving solid foods prematurely can lead to weight gain and obesity, this is why breast milk or formula is preferred.

Solid foods should be introduced from six months onward. Salt, sugar, processed meat, juices, and canned foods should be avoided. Breast milk or formula continues to be the primary source of nutrition during these months, in addition to solid foods. Solid food can be introduced during this age because the gastrointestinal tract has matured. Solids can be digested more easily, and allergic responses are less likely. The infant has begun teething by now, which will aid in chewing of solid food. Another milestone that the infant has hit by now is properly supporting and turning their head. They may do this to express a dislike in certain foods. The infant has also developed enough to participate in feedings by grasping bottles and pieces of food to feed themselves. When all of these developmental milestones are considered, it is easy to understand why introducing solid foods before six months is not recommended.

When choosing which solid to introduce first, it is important to understand what the infant actually needs. Iron-fortified infant cereal is typically the first solid introduced due to its high iron content. Cereals can be made of rice, barley, or oatmeal. Foods must be introduced one a time over a five- to seven-day period, to be able to detect any allergic responses. Orange juice is the best thing to mix with the cereal, because the vitamin C enhances the absorption of iron. Juices like apple, pear, prune, peach, and grape need to be avoided because of the risk of gastric upset. Overall, solids can be introduced in any order after the cereal is introduced. It is important to know that solids cannot completely replace formula or breast milk until after twelve months of age.

Each year in the U.S. roughly 27% of infants and children are affected by disease. Breastfeeding can lower the risk of respiratory, gastrointestinal, and other potentially life-threatening diseases. It offers protection against obesity and diabetes later in life, too. Breast milk is proven to be chemically different for each mother and infant pair. For example, a premature infant's mother will have different milk than a mature infant's mother. Breast milk can also change if an infection is detected in the infant. This natural prevention is tailored to each infant.
Breastfed infants are at a lower risk for acquiring iron-deficiency anemia. Infants that only consume cow’s milk become deficient in iron and are 50% more likely to lose blood in their stool. If the infant is allergic to cow’s milk, it causes inflammation of the digestive system, resulting in chronic blood loss and decreased absorption of iron. This is why formula must be iron-enriched if breastfeeding is not possible. Breast milk naturally contains lactoferrin, an iron binding protein that allows better iron absorption and digestion. Allowing the baby to absorb more iron leads to a better gut health of the infant.

Breastfed infants tend to have lower incidences of obesity later in life. Breast milk leads to a slower weight gain in early infancy, and is protective against obesity and development of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a serious health problem where the body does not use insulin correctly. This diagnosis can cause many complications of the skin, eyes, feet, nervous system, heart, and kidneys. Therefore, it is important to prevent diabetes when possible, because it goes hand-in-hand with obesity.

When an infant is breastfed, they are exposed to a variety of flavors due to the mother’s changing diet and breast milk. A study showed that later in life breastfed children are more likely to eat a variety of healthy foods; this happens because food preferences are ingrained early in life. So, when an infant is exposed to a variety of flavors early on, they are less likely to be picky later. Another study confirmed a decrease in obesity at ages two and four if the infant is exclusively breastfed for at least four months. Therefore, breast milk is proven again to be the best nutrition without causing obesity.

SIDS is an unexplained death occurring in an infant who is one year of age or younger. Most deaths occur when the infant is sleeping. Breastfeeding will help reduce the risk of SIDS when done exclusively for any length of time. It is recommended to breastfeed the infant from birth to 6 months exclusively to decrease the risk of SIDS by 50%. Diarrhea and upper respiratory illnesses, both linked to a higher risk of SIDS, occur less frequently for infants who are breastfed when compared to babies that are not breastfed, thus reducing the risk. Also, breast milk provides necessary nutrition for the infant's brain to develop. This allows the brain of the baby to mature quickly enough so that he or she will have the response to gasp for air when needed. Lastly, breastfed babies tend to sleep for shorter periods at a time and awaken more easily. Research has shown that babies who sleep shorter and awaken from their sleep easily tend to have a lower risk of SIDS. Conclusively, most incidences happen when the infant is asleep, so it is important to exclusively breastfeed in order to reduce the incidence of SIDS.
Breast milk is important for the infant’s digestive system. It is the best substance to give, especially over cow's milk. Infants cannot properly digest fats, which cow's milk is full of. Breast milk contains a lot of fat, too, but it also contains lipase, a substance to help break down fat to aid in digestion. This leads to infants passing softer stools, so constipation is rare in breastfed infants. Human milk also allows beneficial bacteria to grow in the infant’s intestines, which protects the mucosal barrier of the infant's stomach. This prevents harmful pathogens from harming the infant’s intestinal lining. The infant’s digestive mucosa is unable to produce antibodies until they are about four to six months old, which makes the infant susceptible to many infections. However, breast milk provides the antibodies needed for the infant to stay protected until they are able to produce their own antibodies. Breast milk also stimulates a microbiota, which results in the production of IgA. IgA is an immunoglobulin that is a first line of defense to protect the digestive tract of the infant. This immunoglobulin is much higher in infants that are breastfed than in infants that were formula-fed.

Colostrum is a great source of nutrition for a newborn baby, it is a thick yellow fluid that a mother first produces after birth. It has valuable nutrition that aids the baby with building immunity because it helps destroy disease-causing viruses. Other benefits of colostrum include: prevention of jaundice, aiding the baby in passing their first stool, building a strong immune system, providing a great number of vitamins and protein, and prevents low blood sugar in babies. Overall, the sticky, thick, yellow liquid called colostrum has many benefits for a newborn baby which can be only provided to the baby through breastfeeding.

Another immunoglobulin breast milk provides to the infant is known as IgG. IgG provides passive immunity from the mother to the infant. This means that antibodies for common childhood diseases like diphtheria, measles, poliomyelitis, and rubella are passed onto the infant naturally, if the mother was vaccinated for this in her lifetime. The infant is then protected for about 3 months, just enough time to protect them until they receive their first immunizations at 2 months.

Parents generally want their child to be as smart as possible and to exceed in school. Breastfeeding an infant can increase their intelligence throughout life. Mothers who exclusively breastfed their child have a higher chance of increasing their child’s intelligence. Studies have shown that infants that are breastfed for six months versus infants who were only breasted for one month have a higher intelligence score. Those children tend to have a higher intelligence score in the third and fifth grade. Their intelligence scores are also higher at the age of 15. Breastfeeding aids in the development of cognitive maturity which leads to a higher intelligence. However, this only correlated to those children which were exclusively breastfed by their mothers as infants.

Breastfeeding, prehistorically, was the only way infants were nourished, there was no acceptable substitute for human milk for a long time. In 1 AD, philosophers were discovering the importance of breast milk versus any substitute. It was concluded that breastfeeding helped the mother and infant establish an emotional connection. The nutritional value was still not fully understood, but it was believed that through suckling, the infant gained not only energy, but also the characteristics and personality of whoever they fed from. It was suggested that infants be breastfed as long as possible, and many were until two to three years of age.

It was not until 16 centuries later that the importance of breast milk was truly understood. In 1748, in the book “An Essay upon Nursing, and the Management of Children, from Their Birth to Three Years of Age” by Cadogan, colostrum was recognized as a substance responsible for the elimination of meconium, and prevention of illnesses of mothers and children. Also, it was believed that a bond was established if the mother breastfed her child from the hour it was born. Wet-nurses and introducing solid food before the baby turned six months were now opposed, and mortality rates decreased once accepting the value of breastfeeding. Those that continued to feed their infants substitutes like cereals, cow’s milk, and broths too early, led to the infant's development of scurvy, rickets, gastrointestinal problems, and kidney stones.

Continuing on into the 19th century, scientists were relating high rates of mortality and malnourishment to the lack of infants being breastfed. At last, breastfeeding was seen as the best and only option for infant nutrition before six months. However, in 1847, when the first commercial formula was made, it promoted the use of bottles, partly due to breasts receiving a sexual connotation during this time. With the promotion of formula, the long fight for breastfeeding took a dive. Organizations that took notice came together to promote breastfeeding once again, they included Natural Childbirth Movement, Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative launched by WHO, and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). In 1990, these organizations pushed to protect and promote “breast milk is the best food for infants.” This value still holds true today. Factors leading to increased breastfeeding rates recently include facilities encouraging mothers to have skin-to-skin contact with the infant after birth, cultivating the initiation of breastfeeding; and facilities encouraging rooming-in, where the mother can watch for feeding cues with the infant staying in her room.

Human milk contains 0.8% to 0.9% protein, 4.5% fat, 7.1% carbohydrates, and 0.2% ash (minerals). Carbohydrates are mainly lactose; several lactose-based oligosaccharides have been identified as minor components. The fat fraction contains specific triglycerides of palmitic and oleic acid (O-P-O triglycerides), and also lipids with trans bonds (see: trans fat). The lipids are vaccenic acid, and Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) accounting for up to 6% of the human milk fat.

Breast milk

Breast milk is the milk produced by the breasts (or mammary glands) of a human female to feed a child. Milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to eat and digest other foods; older infants and toddlers may continue to be breastfed, in combination with other foods from six months of age when solid foods should be introduced.

The baby nursing from its own mother is the most common way of obtaining breast milk, but the milk can be pumped and then fed by baby bottle, cup and/or spoon, supplementation drip system, or nasogastric tube. In preterm children who do not have the ability to suck during their early days of life, avoiding bottles and tubes, and use of cups to feed expressed milk and other supplements is reported to result in better breastfeeding extent and duration subsequently. Breast milk can be supplied by a woman other than the baby's mother, either via donated pumped milk (generally from a milk bank or via informal milk donation), or when a woman nurses a child other than her own at her breast, a practice known as wetnursing.

The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, with solids gradually being introduced around this age when signs of readiness are shown. Supplemented breastfeeding is recommended until at least age two and then for as long as the mother and child wish.

Breastfeeding offers health benefits to mother and child even after infancy. These benefits include a 73% decreased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, increased intelligence, decreased likelihood of contracting middle ear infections, cold and flu resistance, a tiny decrease in the risk of childhood leukemia, lower risk of childhood onset diabetes, decreased risk of asthma and eczema, decreased dental problems, decreased risk of obesity later in life, and a decreased risk of developing psychological disorders, including in adopted children. In addition, feeding an infant breast milk is associated with lower insulin levels and higher leptin levels compared feeding an infant via powdered-formula.

Breastfeeding also provides health benefits for the mother. It assists the uterus in returning to its pre-pregnancy size and reduces post-partum bleeding, as well as assisting the mother in returning to her pre-pregnancy weight. Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of breast cancer later in life. Lactation protects both mother and infant from both types of diabetes. Lactation may protect the infant from specifically developing Type 2 diabetes because studies have shown that bioactive ingredients in human breast milk could prevent excess weight gain during childhood via contributing to a feeling of energy and satiety. A lower risk of child-onset diabetes may more applicable to infants who were born from diabetic mothers. The reason is because while breastfeeding for at least the first 6 months of life minimizes the risk of Type 1 diabetes from occurring in the infant, inadequate breastfeeding in an infant prenatally exposed to diabetes was associated with a higher risk of the child developing diabetes later on. However, it can be argued that human breastfeeding may contribute to protective effects against the development of Type 1 diabetes due to the fact that the alternative of bottle-feeding may expose infants to unhygienic feeding conditions.

Though it now is almost universally prescribed, in some countries in the 1950s the practice of breastfeeding went through a period where it was out of vogue and the use of infant formula was considered superior to breast milk. However, it is now universally recognized that there is no commercial formula that can equal breast milk. In addition to the appropriate amounts of carbohydrate, protein, and fat, breast milk provides vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, and hormones. Breast milk also contains antibodies and lymphocytes from the mother that help the baby resist infections. The immune function of breast milk is individualized, as the mother, through her touching and taking care of the baby, comes into contact with pathogens that colonize the baby, and, as a consequence, her body makes the appropriate antibodies and immune cells.

At around four months of age, the internal iron supplies of the infant, held in the hepatic cells of the liver, are exhausted. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that at this time that an iron supplement should be introduced, however, other health organisations such as the NHS in the UK have no such recommendation. Breast milk contains less iron than formula, because it is more bioavailable as lactoferrin, which carries more safety for mothers and children than ferrous sulphate.

Both the AAP and the NHS recommend vitamin D supplementation for breastfed infants. Vitamin D can be synthesised by the infant via exposure to sunlight, however, many infants are deficient due being kept indoors or living in areas with insufficient sunlight. Formula is supplemented with vitamin D for this reason.

Under the influence of the hormones prolactin and oxytocin, women produce milk after childbirth to feed the baby. The initial milk produced is referred to as colostrum, which is high in the immunoglobulin IgA, which coats the gastrointestinal tract. This helps to protect the newborn until its own immune system is functioning properly. It also creates a mild laxative effect, expelling meconium and helping to prevent the build-up of bilirubin (a contributory factor in jaundice).

Actual inability to produce enough milk is rare, with studies showing that mothers from developing countries experiencing nutritional hardship still produce amounts of milk of similar quality to that of mothers in developed countries. There are many reasons a mother may not produce enough breast milk. Some of the most common reasons are an improper latch (i.e., the baby does not connect efficiently with the nipple), not nursing or pumping enough to meet supply, certain medications (including estrogen-containing hormonal contraceptives), illness, and dehydration. A rarer reason is Sheehan's syndrome, also known as postpartum hypopituitarism, which is associated with prolactin deficiency and may require hormone replacement.

The amount of milk produced depends on how often the mother is nursing and/or pumping: the more the mother nurses her baby or pumps, the more milk is produced. It is beneficial to nurse when the baby wants to nurse rather than on a schedule. A Cochrane review came to the conclusion that a greater volume of milk is expressed whilst listening to relaxing audio during breastfeeding, along with warming and massaging of the breast prior to and during feeding. A greater volume of milk expressed can also be attributed to instances where the mother starts pumping milk sooner, even if the infant is unable to breastfeed.

Sodium concentration is higher in hand-expressed milk, when compared with the use of manual and electric pumps, and fat content is higher when the breast has been massaged, in conjunction with listening to relaxing audio. This may be important for low birthweight infants. If pumping, it is helpful to have an electric, high-grade pump so that all of the milk ducts are stimulated. Galactagogues increase milk supply, although even herbal variants carry risks; therefore non-pharmaceutical methods should be tried first.

Breast milk contains complex proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and other biologically active components. The composition changes over a single feed as well as over the period of lactation.

During the first few days after delivery, the mother produces colostrum. This is a thin yellowish fluid that is the same fluid that sometimes leaks from the breasts during pregnancy. It is rich in protein and antibodies that provide passive immunity to the baby (the baby's immune system is not fully developed at birth). Colostrum also helps the newborn's digestive system to grow and function properly.

Colostrum will gradually change to become mature milk. In the first 3–4 days it will appear thin and watery and will taste very sweet; later, the milk will be thicker and creamier. Human milk quenches the baby's thirst and hunger and provides the proteins, sugar, minerals, and antibodies that the baby needs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, lactation professionals (De Cleats) used to make a differentiation between foremilk and hindmilk. But this differentiation causes confusion as there are not two types of milk. Instead, as a baby breastfeeds, the fat content very gradually increases, with the milk becoming fattier and fattier over time.

The level of Immunoglobulin A (IgA) in breast milk remains high from day 10 until at least 7.5 months post-partum.

The principal proteins are alpha-lactalbumin, lactoferrin (apo-lactoferrin), IgA, lysozyme, and serum albumin. In an acidic environment such as the stomach, alpha-lactalbumin unfolds into a different form and binds oleic acid to form a complex called HAMLET that kills tumor cells. This is thought to contribute to the protection of breastfed babies against cancer.

Non-protein nitrogen-containing compounds, making up 25% of the milk's nitrogen, include urea, uric acid, creatine, creatinine, amino acids, and nucleotides. Breast milk has circadian variations; some of the nucleotides are more commonly produced during the night, others during the day.

Mother's milk has been shown to supply endocannabinoids (the natural neurotransmitters that cannabis simulates) 2-Arachidonoyl glycerol, anandamide, oleoylethanolamide, palmitoylethanolamide, N-arachidonoyl glycine, eicosapentaenoyl ethanolamide, docosahexaenoyl ethanolamide, N-palmitoleoyl-ethanolamine, dihomo-γ-linolenoylethanolamine, N-stearoylethanolamine, prostaglandin F2alpha ethanolamides and prostaglandin F2 ethanolamides, Palmitic acid esters of hydroxy-stearic acids (PAHSAs). They may act as an appetite stimulant, but they also regulate appetite so infants don't eat too much. That may be why formula-fed babies have a higher caloric intake than breastfed babies.

Breast milk isn't sterile, but contains as many as 600 different species of various bacteria, including beneficial Bifidobacterium breve, B. adolescentis, B. longum, B. bifidum, and B. dentium.

Breast milk contains a unique type of sugars, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are not present in infant formula. HMOs are not digested by the infant but help to make up the intestinal flora. They act as decoy receptors that block the attachment of disease causing pathogens, which may help to prevent infectious diseases. They also alter immune cell responses, which may benefit the infant. To date (2015) more than a hundred different HMOs have been identified; both the number and composition vary between women and each HMO may have a distinct functionality.

The breast milk of diabetic mothers has been shown to have a different composition from that of non-diabetic mothers. It may contain elevated levels of glucose and insulin and decreased polyunsaturated fatty acids. A dose-dependent effect of diabetic breast milk on increasing language delays in infants has also been noted, although doctors recommend that diabetic mothers breastfeed despite this potential risk.

Women breastfeeding should consult with their physician regarding substances that can be unwittingly passed to the infant via breast milk, such as alcohol, viruses (HIV or HTLV-1) or medications. Even though most infants infected with HIV contract the disease from breastfeeding, most infants that are breastfed by their HIV positive mothers never contract the disease. While this paradoxical phenomenon suggests that the risk of HIV transmission between an HIV positive mother and her child via breastfeeding is small, studies have also shown that feeding infants with breast milk of HIV-positive mothers can actually have a preventative effect against HIV transmission between the mother and child. This inhibitory effect against the infant contracting HIV is likely due to unspecified factors exclusively present in breast milk of HIV-positive mothers.

Most women that do not breastfeed use infant formula, but breast milk donated by volunteers to human milk banks can be obtained by prescription in some countries. In addition, research has shown that women who rely on infant formula could minimize the gap between the level of immunity protection and cognitive abilities a breastfed child benefits from versus the degree to which a bottle-fed child benefits from them. This can be done by supplementing formula-fed infants with bovine milk fat globule membranes (MFGM) meant to mimic the positive effects of the MFGMs which are present in human breast milk.

Expressed breast milk can be stored. Lipase may cause thawed milk to taste soapy or rancid due to milk fat breakdown. It is still safe to use, and most babies will drink it. Scalding it will prevent rancid taste at the expense of antibodies. It should be stored with airtight seals. Some plastic bags are designed for storage periods of less than 72 hours. Others can be used for up to 12 months if frozen. This table describes safe storage time limits.

All mammalian species produce milk, but the composition of milk for each species varies widely and other kinds of milk are often very different from human breast milk. As a rule, the milk of mammals that nurse frequently (including human babies) is less rich, or more watery, than the milk of mammals whose young nurse less often. Human milk is noticeably thinner and sweeter than cow's milk.

Whole cow's milk contains too little iron, retinol, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin D, unsaturated fats or essential fatty acids for human babies. Whole cow's milk also contains too much protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorus and chloride which may put a strain on an infant's immature kidneys. In addition, the proteins, fats and calcium in whole cow's milk are more difficult for an infant to digest and absorb than the ones in breast milk. Evaporated milk may be easier to digest due to the processing of the protein but is still nutritionally inadequate. Some infants are allergic to cow's milk protein, this problem may be associated with infant formulas derived from cow's milk.

Almost all medicines pass into breastmilk in small amounts. Some have no effect on the baby and can be used while breastfeeding. Women with hypothyroidism may be unable to produce milk. Alcohol use during pregnancy carries a significant risk of serious birth defects, but consuming alcohol after the birth of the infant is considered safe.

Pesticides and other toxic substances bioaccumulate; i.e., creatures higher up the food chain will store more of them in their body fat. This is an issue in particular for the Inuit, whose traditional diet is predominantly meat. Studies are looking at the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls and persistent organic pollutants in the body; the breast milk of Inuit mothers is extraordinarily high in toxic compounds.

There is a market for human breast milk, both in the form of wet nurse service and milk product. As a product, breast milk is exchanged by human milk banks as well as directly between milk donors and customers mediated by websites on the Internet. Human milk banks generally have standardized measures for screening donors and storing the milk, while donors on websites vary in regard to these measures. A study in 2013 came to the conclusion that 74% of breast milk samples from providers found from websites were colonized with Gram-negative bacteria or had more than 10,000 colony-forming units/mL of aerobic bacteria. Growth happens during transit. According to the FDA, the bacteria in fresh milk doubles every 20 minutes. Breast milk is considered to be healthier than cow's milk and infant formula when it comes to feeding an infant in the first 6 months of life, but only under extreme situations do international health organizations support feeding an infant breast milk from a healthy wet nurse rather than that of its biological mother. One reason is because the unregulated breast milk market is fraught with risks such as drugs of abuse and prescription medications being present in donated breast milk. The transmission of these substances through breast milk can do more harm than good when it comes to the health outcomes of the infant recipient.

A minority of people, including restaurateurs Hans Lochen of Switzerland and Daniel Angerer of Austria, who operates a restaurant in New York City, have used human breast milk, or at least advocated its use, as a substitute for cow's milk in dairy products and food recipes. An Icecreamist in London's Covent Garden started selling an ice cream named Baby Gaga in February 2011. Each serving cost £14. All the milk was donated by a Mrs Hiley who earned £15 for every 10 ounces and called it a "great recession beater". The ice cream sold out on its first day. Despite the success of the new flavour, the Westminster Council officers removed the product from the menu to make sure that it was, as they said, "fit for human consumption."Tammy Frissell-Deppe, a family counsellor specialized in attachment parenting, published a book, titled "A Breastfeeding Mother's Secret Recipes", providing a lengthy compilation of detailed food and beverage recipes containing human breast milk. Human breast milk is not produced or distributed industrially or commercially, because the use of human breast milk as an adult food is considered unusual to the majority of cultures around the world, and most disapprove of such a practice.

While there is no scientific evidence that shows that breast milk is more advantageous for adults than cow's milk, according to several 2015 news sources breast milk is being used by bodybuilders for its nutritional value. In a February 2015 ABC News article one former competitive body builder said, "It isn’t common, but I’ve known people who have done this. It’s certainly talked about quite a bit on the bodybuilding forums on the Internet." Calling bodybuilders "a strange breed of individuals,” he said, “Even if this type of thing is completely unsupported by research, they’re prone to gym lore and willing to give it a shot if there is any potential effect.” At the time the article was written, in the U.S. the price of breast milk procured from milk banks that pasteurize the milk, and have expensive quality and safety controls, was about $10 an ounce, and the price in the alternative market online, bought directly from mothers, ranges from $1 to $4 per US fluid ounce, compared to cow's milk at about $3.44 a gallon.

A 2015 CBS article cites an editorial led by Dr. Sarah Steele in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, in which they say that "the health claims do not stand up clinically and that raw human milk purchased online poses many health risks." CBS found a study from the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus that "found that 11 out of 102 breast milk samples purchased online were actually blended with cow's milk." The article also explains that milk purchased online may be improperly sanitized or stored, so it may contain food-borne illness and infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.


Who is head coach for the Georgia Bulldogs?

After the 2015 regular season, Georgia's athletic director Greg McGarity fired head coach Mark Richt after 15 seasons with an overall 145–51 record. Richt was replaced with former Georgia football player Kirby Smart, who, at the time, was Alabama's defensive coordinator. Smart played for the Bulldogs from 1995 to 1998 for coaches Ray Goff and Jim Donnan and was defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008 to 2015 under head coach Nick Saban. Jeremy Pruitt, who was defensive coordinator for Georgia from 2014 to 2015, accepted a position as the defensive coordinator for Alabama to replace Smart.

2016 Georgia Bulldogs football team

The 2016 Georgia Bulldogs football team represented the University of Georgia in the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bulldogs played their home games at Sanford Stadium. They were members of the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. They were led by first-year head coach Kirby Smart. They finished the season 8–5, 4–4 in SEC play to finish in a three-way tie for second place in the Eastern Division. They were invited to the Liberty Bowl where they defeated TCU.

The 2015 Georgia Bulldogs football team was the favorite to win the Eastern Division. The Bulldogs started off the season 4–0 with SEC wins over Vanderbilt 31–14 and South Carolina 52–20, where quarterback Greyson Lambert set a NCAA record for completion percentage in a game with 96% (24/25). On October 3, the #13 Alabama Crimson Tide came to Athens and defeated the Bulldogs 38–10. The next week the Dawgs traveled to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers. On Georgia's first offensive play of the game, Bulldog's running back Nick Chubb was tackled on the sideline and suffered a season-ending knee injury as Georgia loss their second game of the season. Three weeks later, the Bulldogs suffered their third loss of the season during the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida to the Florida Gators 27–3, where third-string quarterback Faton Bauta started. The Bulldogs finish the regular season on a four-game winning streak including road wins over the Auburn Tigers 20–13 and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 13–7. The day after the Georgia Tech game, head coach Mark Richt was fired after 15 seasons of head coach. Richt had a record of 145–51 as head coach of the Bulldogs. Georgia finished the season with a win over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Taxslayer Bowl 24–17 under intermediate head coach Bryan McClendon in Jacksonville. The bowl win gave the Bulldogs a final 2015 season record of 10-3, which gave the senior class a total of 40 wins.

National Signing Day was on February 3, 2016.

Georgia announced its 2016 football schedule on October 29, 2015. The 2016 schedule consists of 6 home, 4 away, and 2 neutral site games in the regular season. The Bulldogs will host SEC foes Auburn, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt, and will travel to Kentucky, Missouri, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. Georgia will go against Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Bulldogs had hosted three of their four non–conference games, which were against Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the North Carolina Tar Heels both from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns from the Sun Belt Conference, and Nicholls State Colonels from the Southland Conference.

On December 6, 2015; Alabama defensive coordinator and UGA alumnus Kirby Smart was announced as the 26th head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. In his second year as head coach of the Bulldogs, Smart led his team to an appearance in the national championship game where they lost to Alabama 26-23.

History of Georgia Bulldogs football

The Georgia Bulldogs football team represents the University of Georgia in American football.

Georgia's football program began in 1892, when Dr. Charles Herty, a chemistry professor and former player at Johns Hopkins, assembled a team and arranged a game against Mercer University on January 30, 1892. This was the first intercollegiate football game played in the deep south. Playing on what would later be called Herty Field, Georgia beat Mercer 50–0. Georgia's second game was on February 20, 1892, against Auburn University, inaugurating what would come to be known as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. From 1892 to 1909, the Georgia Bulldogs changed head coaches frequently, with 14 different coaches in a 17-year period. Their combined record was 47–52–10 (.477 winning percentage). During its early years, Georgia's greatest success came during Glenn "Pop" Warner's tenure from 1895-1896. It is thought that the first forward pass in football occurred in 1895 in a game between Georgia and North Carolina when, out of desperation, the ball was thrown by the North Carolina quarterback instead of punted and a North Carolina player caught the ball. In 1896, Warner's Georgia team, led by quarterback Richard Von Albade Gammon, recorded the program's first conference championship, winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship with a 3-0 conference record. Georgia's overall season record was 4–0, which marked the team's first undefeated season, as well. In 1897, the team acquired Reynolds Tichenor and moved Gammon to fullback. The program was nearly terminated when Gammon died as a result of injuries sustained in a game against the University of Virginia. The Georgia state legislature quickly passed a bill abolishing collegiate football in the state, but the bill was vetoed by Governor William Yates Atkinson, based upon an appeal from Gammon's mother, Rosalind Gammon.
Beginning in 1910, Georgia started experiencing stability in its head coaches. From 1910–63, Georgia had 7 head coaches and a record of 307–180–33 (a.622 winning percentage). 1910 saw the introduction of coach Bill Cunningham and a player who would be Georgia's first All-American in Bob McWhorter, College Football Hall of Fame running back. Georgia won its first two games of 1910 by a combined 180–0. In 1911, Georgia moved its playing field from Herty Field to Sanford Field, where wooden stands were built. In 1911 and 1912 Georgia suffered its only loss to SIAA champion Vanderbilt. George "Kid" Woodruff was quarterback and captain in 1911. "Kid" and his older brother "Big Kid" were both quarterbacks for the Bulldogs and were the namesakes of Woodruff Hall. It was "Kid" who later led the Bulldogs to their first claim to a national championship, the third former Bulldog player to serve as coach. In 1927, Georgia's "dream and wonder team" finished the season 9–1 and could stake a claim to the national championship by finishing #1 in at least one national poll. 1913 was when McWhorter was Georgia's first ever All-American. The next season saw the second, quarterback David Paddock. 1914 was a lackluster 3–5–1 season on paper but included an upset of Sewanee and closed with a scoreless tie against Auburn. Sewanee had a 55-game unbeaten streak at home and the Bulldogs won 7–6 on a Tom Thrash touchdown and John G. Henderson conversion. Auburn was undefeated and defending SIAA champion having been undefeated the year before. The Tigers finished the season as co-champion. In 1915, Henderson was the head of a group of three men, one behind the other with his hands upon the shoulders of the one in front, to counter Georgia Tech's jump shift offense utilized by John Heisman. The game ended 0–0. The Bulldogs did not field a team for the 1917 or 1918 season due to World War I.
Herman Stegeman coached the Bulldogs to an 8–0 record in 1920, when the team was named co-champion of the SIAA with rival Georgia Tech and posted the conference's best record. The "ten second backfield" of 1920 led by Buck Cheves featured on the team– the first dubbed "the Bulldogs." In 1921 not one team all year scored on Georgia through its line. The line included Joe Bennett, Bum Day, Artie Pew, Owen Reynolds, and Puss Whelchel. Jim Taylor was a substitute. Vanderbilt executed a trick onside kick from scrimmage to tie the score 7–7 and share the SIAA title between the two. It was said Lynn Bomar stopped five Georgia touchdowns. Day played for Georgia Tech in 1918 and was the first southern player selected first-team All-American by Walter Camp. Bennett and Whelchel were both notorious kick blockers; "Prior to the 1960s, Bennett is likely Georgia's most outstanding tackle." In 1922 Georgia joined the Southern Conference. In 1923, Vanderbilt defeated Georgia by a lopsided score of 35 to 7. Morgan Blake, sportswriter in the "Atlanta Journal", wrote "No southern team has given the Georgia Bulldogs such a licking in a decade." Georgia was labeled "Dixie's top team;" its only loss up to that point coming against traditional powerhouse Yale. In 1924, Georgia defeated Vanderbilt for the second time ever and the first time since 1898, via a Scrappy Moore drop kick; a victory clouded by the brain hemorrhage sustained by Lynn Bomar from a kick to the chin. In 1927, Georgia's "dream and wonder team" finished the season 9–1 and could stake a claim to the national championship by finishing #1 in at least one national poll. The 1927 Bulldogs were the first in school history to defeat Yale and went undefeated until the season's final game against Georgia Tech–the next season's national champion. Though still picked by some as national champion, the loss to Tech negated any claim to the conference title. Harry Mehre coached the Bulldogs from 1928 to 1937, but perhaps his most memorable game was in 1929. October 12, 1929 was the inaugural game in the newly completed Sanford Stadium and Mehre's Bulldogs responded with an upset victory over the powerhouse of the day, Yale University, winning 15–0. In that game, Vernon "Catfish" Smith scored all 15 points for Georgia. As head coach, Mehre compiled a 59–34–6 record (.626 winning percentage), but was never able to win a conference championship. Mehre left after ten seasons to accept the head football coach position at Ole Miss.

Wally Butts coached the Bulldogs from 1939 to 1960 and continued as athletic director until 1963. Butts came to UGA as an assistant to Joel Hunt in 1938, but Hunt left after a 5–4–1 season to take over at Wyoming; Butts succeeded him. During his tenure as head coach, Georgia had a claim to the national championship in 1942 being selected by 6 polls recognized by the NCAA Division 1-A college football national championship (Ohio St. was also selected by 6 polls, including the AP, and Wisconsin was selected by one poll), and in 1946 after finishing first in at least one national poll and/or rating system. Butts coached 1942 Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich and Maxwell Award winner Charley Trippi. His teams also won four SEC championships – 1942, 1946, 1948 and 1959.
As head coach, Butts posted a 140–86–9 record (.615 winning percentage); his bowl record was 5–2–1. Butts was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

Johnny Griffith, a former player and assistant coach to Butts, succeeded him in 1961. Butts' last few seasons had been somewhat pedestrian apart from an SEC title-winning season in 1959, despite the presence of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton. Things did not get any better under Griffith and he was only able to compile a 10–16–4 record during his three-year term as head coach. While there were few successes during this time as head coach, he did have two big victories, a 30–21 upset win over Auburn in 1962 and a 31–14 win over heavily favored Miami in 1963. He resigned in December 1963 after going 10–16–2, including a combined 1–8 against Georgia Tech, Florida, and Auburn.

Vince Dooley, an assistant at Auburn, took over for the 1964 season. He held the head coach position longer than any other Bulldogs coach, leading the Bulldogs from 1964–88. During his tenure as head coach, Georgia won its second consensus national championship in 1980, winning the Grantland Rice Award. Dooley's 1968 team finished first in at least one national poll, giving Georgia a claim to the national championship in that year. The 1967 Cotton Bowl win over SMU made Georgia only the 3rd school in college football history to have won all 4 of the historical major bowls, Rose, Cotton, Sugar, Orange. His teams gave Georgia six SEC Championships and he coached 1982 Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award winner Herschel Walker, 1968 Outland Trophy winner Bill Stanfill and 40 All-Americans. Dooley won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award in 2001. He compiled a 201–77–10 record (.715 winning percentage), which included twenty bowl appearances. His bowl record was 8–10–2. From 1976–82, his teams were in contention for the national title 4 times (1976, 1980, 1981, and 1982). His 6 SEC titles ties him for second place all time amongst SEC coaches for SEC titles. Dooley's offenses were known primarily for running the football. He converted UGA's single-wing offense to a Split-Back Veer in the early 1970s, and later ran a professional I-type offense with the development of Herschel Walker. For a while during the 1980s UGA was known as "Tailback U." Dooley was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 In 1981, Professor Jan Kemp complained that Georgia officials had intervened allowing nine college football players to pass a remedial English course, allowing them to play against Pittsburgh in the Sugar Bowl. The board of regents of the University System of Georgia issued a report in April 1986 implicating Dr. Fred C. Davison and the Georgia athletic department, headed by Dooley, who was also the football coach, in a pattern of academic abuse in the admission and advancement of student-athletes over the previous four years.

Ray Goff was promoted from assistant coach and took over as head coach in 1989. He coached the Bulldogs until 1995, posting a 46–34–1 record (.574 winning percentage). Goff's tenure got off to a slow start, with just ten wins in his first two seasons, before reeling off nine wins in 1991 and ten in 1992; the latter campaign finished with Georgia ranked eighth by the Coaches Poll. Over the next three years, Goff's Bulldogs never again posted as many as seven wins. His teams were 0–5 against Tennessee, 1–6 against Florida, 2–4–1 against Auburn, 5–2 against Georgia Tech and won no conference titles. During his time at Georgia, Goff was often derisively referred to as Ray ""Goof"", a nickname given to him by disgruntled fans, and even rival coaches. There was one incident in which an aircraft flew over Sanford Stadium during the 1990 Georgia Tech game towing a banner reading "'Fire Ray Goof'". This nickname was resurrected after Goff's teams began to fall below expectations again. Goff had a 2–2 bowl record. Goff's 1995 team was on the receiving end of Steve Spurrier's "Half a Hundred" game in which his Florida Gators team put up 52 points on the beleaguered Bulldogs. They were the first and, to date, only team to do so inside Sanford Stadium. He was fired at the end of that injury-plagued season, despite the Bulldogs being invited to the Peach Bowl.

Jim Donnan left Marshall and took over as head coach of the Bulldogs in 1996 and coached the team until 2000, posting a 40–19 record (.678 winning percentage). He was the first head football coach in UGA history to lead teams to four consecutive bowl victories. Under Donnan, the Bulldogs won the 1998 Outback Bowl, the 1998 Peach Bowl, the 2000 Outback Bowl, and the 2000 Oahu Bowl. Before the 1997 game against Mississippi State, Donnan drove a steamroller into practice and told his players they "were either going to be the steamroller or the pavement"; Georgia won the game, 47–0.

Donnan was fired by University President Michael F. Adams, against the wishes of athletic director Vince Dooley, in 2000 after the Bulldogs posted two consecutive eight-win seasons and three consecutive losses against Georgia Tech. Before the 2000 season, Georgia, led by a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate (Quincy Carter), was predicted by some prognosticators to contend for the national championship. However, an early disappointing loss to rival South Carolina and later losses to rivals Florida, Auburn, along with the loss to Tech frustrated many in the fan base. Donnan's inability to return the program to the national prominence of Dooley's era, compete with longtime SEC Eastern Division rivals and off-the-field problems for players, are believed to be the reasons for his dismissal. Donnan was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2009.

Mark Richt joined the Bulldogs in 2001 after serving as the offensive coordinator of the Florida State Seminoles under Bobby Bowden. During Richt's tenure, Georgia won two SEC championships – 2002 and 2005 – and 6 of their 7 SEC East Division Championships – 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2012. (Out of those years Georgia represented the East in the SEC Championship Game in all but 2007.) Including bowl games, Richt's record, as of January 14, 2014, was 126–45 for a (.737 winning percentage) and 72–32 (.692) in the SEC. His bowl record through 2014 was 8–5. On October 8, 2011 Richt won his 100th career game as UGA's coach against Tennessee at Neyland Stadium 20–12.

Under Richt, Georgia was 10–5 against Tennessee, 5–10 against Florida, 10–5 against Auburn, and 12–2 against Georgia Tech. In 2011, under Richt, Georgia defeated Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech in the same season for the first time since 1981.

Despite his success, some supporters began to question whether the well-liked Richt could take the program to a higher level. Although some rivals had better facilities and larger recruiting budgets during most of his time in Athens,many supporters felt that given its in-state talent, Georgia should be a contender for the national championship on a regular basis. On November 29, 2015, Mark Richt and Georgia mutually agreed to part ways after 15 seasons.

The Georgia Bulldogs college football team represents the University of Georgia in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Bulldogs compete as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The school has had 26 head coaches since it began play during the 1892 season. Kirby Smart is the current head coach of the bulldogs.

List of Georgia Bulldogs head football coaches

The team has played more than 1,200 games over 118 seasons of Georgia football. Six coaches have led the Bulldogs to postseason bowl games: Wally Butts, Vince Dooley, Ray Goff, Jim Donnan, Mark Richt, and Kirby Smart. Five coaches also won conference championships: Herman Stegeman won one as a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Butts, Dooley, Richt, and Smart won a combined thirteen as a member of the SEC. During their tenures, Butts and Dooley each won a national championship with the Bulldogs.

Dooley is the leader in seasons coached and games won, with 201 victories during his 25 years with the Bulldogs. Robert Winston has the highest winning percentage with a record of, and Charles A. Barnard has the lowest winning percentage at. Four of the team's coaches—Pop Warner, Butts, Dooley and Donnan—have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

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