Octopuses

Detached octopus arms show awareness, react to danger

It’s further evidence that octopus intelligence is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Their arms continue to remain alert, reacting to pain, long after they have been removed from the body of the octopus. This isn’t just post-mortem twitching — the tentacles are aware of their environment, and responding to danger. Over at Scientific American, Katherine…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 27

Watch an octopus steal food and beat up a shark AT THE SAME TIME

Octopuses are absolutely hilarious, what with their penchant for puzzle-solving and infinitely useful tentacles. Just check out this video by Lauren De Vos of the University of Cape Town’s Marine Research Institute — while filming a bait canister in Cape Town’s False Bay, a thieving octopus managed to undo the humans’ cable ties and wrangle…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Oct 2

An upside-down waterfall of baby octopuses is equal parts adorable and gross

It’s not uncommon for many species of octopus to die promptly after mating, but at least the sight of these cephalopods creating new life can be beautiful. Or squirm-inducing! It really depends on your tolerance for thousands of wriggling, miniature octopuses. https://gizmodo.com/the-growing-evidence-for-octopus-intelligence-5858783 Last year, biologist Richard Ross of the California Academy of Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jun 28

And now, a dolphin with an octopus stuck to its naughty bits

Dolphins are known to engage in interspecies play, but here’s an example of some accidental interspecies foreplay. While observing bottlenoses last week off of the Greek island of Kalamos, biologist Joan Gonzalvo of the Ionian Dolphin Project photographed this, ahem, unique shot of a dolphin receiving the tender touch of cephalopod. Explains Gonzalvo of this…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jun 18

160 million years ago, ancestors of cuttlefish were already using the ink defense

Researchers have shown that ink sacs from a cephalopod that lived 160-million years ago still contain traces of the pigment melanin. That’s an impressive find in its own right, but what really floored the scientists was how familiar these pigments looked. Pictured below are the fossilized ink sacs (labeled “A” and “B”), and the traces…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 22

Octopuses rewrite their RNA to function in frigid Antarctic waters

We all know octopuses are clever, but a recent study reveals that the brainy beasts are crafty even at the molecular level. In a study published in the latest issue of Science, researchers reveal that octopuses living in the hypothermic climes of Antarctica rely not on their DNA, but the revision of their RNA, to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 6

Where the octopuses roam

Last year, a group of artists called Nevercrew created this gorgeous octopus pool, which they dubbed “Big Pink.” Here’s how they made it. Here’s a closer look at the pool: And a video showing the whole process: Octopus (Nevercrew 2009) from Christian Rebecchi on Vimeo. via Fubiz

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 12

Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Take a Look Edition

In today’s Remainders: sights! Visit Paris in your browser with a magnificent 24 gigapixel photograph; behold America, circa 1972, in the EPA’s 15,000 photograph Documerica project, and more. Chroming Soon Chrome OS! Remember that? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. In the intervening months since Google announced their snappy, lightweight operating system, there…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Mar 12

Octopuses Notice and Prefer High-Def TVs, Unlike Dad

Extremely important research is being done in Australia right now, and it’s yielding extremely important results: octopuses are officially more technically discerning than about 1/5th of the American public. https://gizmodo.com/one-in-five-hdtv-owners-cant-tell-standard-def-from-hd-5098282 Macquarie University’s Renata Pronk has discovered that the animals, despite probably not even seeing color, were much more interested in HDTV than in SD, though…

Tech News John Herrman Dec 22

Detached octopus arms show awareness, react to danger

Watch an octopus steal food and beat up a shark AT THE SAME TIME

An upside-down waterfall of baby octopuses is equal parts adorable and gross

And now, a dolphin with an octopus stuck to its naughty bits

160 million years ago, ancestors of cuttlefish were already using the ink defense

Octopuses rewrite their RNA to function in frigid Antarctic waters

Where the octopuses roam

Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Take a Look Edition

Octopuses Notice and Prefer High-Def TVs, Unlike Dad

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