Latest news with #octopus
New York Times
5 days ago
- Science
- New York Times
Octopuses' 8 Arms Snoop on the Microbial World
When octopuses extend their eight arms into hidden nooks and crannies in search of a meal, they are not just feeling around in the dark for their food. They are tasting their prey, and with even more sensory sophistication than scientists had already imagined. Researchers reported on Tuesday in the journal Cell that octopus arms are fine-tuned to 'eavesdrop into the microbial world,' detecting microbiomes on the surfaces around them and deriving information from them, said Rebecka Sepela, a molecular biologist at Harvard and an author of the new study. Where octopus eyes cannot see, their arms can go to identify prey and make sense of their surroundings. Scientists knew that those eight arms (not tentacles) sense whether their eggs are healthy or need to be pruned. And the hundreds of suckers on each arm have over 10,000 chemotactile sensory receptors each, working with 500 million neurons to pick up that information and relay it throughout the nervous system. Yet, what exactly the octopus is tasting by probing and prodding — and how its arms can distinguish, say, a rock from an egg, a healthy egg in its clutch from a sick one or a crab that's safe to eat from a rotting, toxic one — has long baffled scientists. What about the surfaces are they perceiving? For Dr. Sepela, this question was heightened when her team discovered 26 receptors along the octopuses' arms that didn't have a known function. She supposed those receptors were tuned only to molecules found on surfaces, rather than those diffused in water. So she and her colleagues collected swaths of molecules coating healthy and unhealthy crabs and octopus eggs. They grew and cultured the microbes from those surfaces in the lab, then tested 300 microbial strains, one by one, on two of those 26 receptors. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Octopus boom along England's southwest coast down to 'perfect storm'
Octopuses, sharks and tuna that are booming in the sea around the UK could be part of a fundamental shift in the marine environment, a leading scientist has told Sky News. Dr Simon Thomas, from the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, said a perfect storm of factors, including climate change and overfishing, is leading to a rapid change in the species being found around the coast. "Since 2016, you've seen a lot of our traditional fish, like cod, ling and pollock decreasing in numbers and pushing northwards," he said. "Then we've seen other fish, especially things like bluefin tuna and blue sharks, being found in huge numbers in the water here. "It's almost like you've seen a complete shift in the regime of the ocean." 'I've never seen anything like it' Fishermen on the south coast of Devon and Cornwall are currently catching huge numbers of a large octopus species that is normally rare in the UK. "I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime," said Dr Thomas. "I've spent 40 years at sea and probably seen three or four of the big octopus over the years. Now they are seen regularly and (crab fishermen) are reporting their pots have been decimated." The octopuses are raiding crab and lobster pots for an easy meal. But there are so many of them, and they are so hungry, that fishermen say they are eating not only the bait and crustaceans, but also, at times, each other. Sam Jago, skipper of the Bosloe, returned to Plymouth after a day's fishing with 11 crates of octopuses - a 400kg bonanza that could fetch almost £3,000 at market rates. But he had just over one tub of crabs and lobsters - when normally he'd have more than a dozen. "They crack the shell and suck everything out of it," he said. "It's a quick buck at the moment, but who knows how long it's going to last for. "They will stay here until they've eaten everything. "But if the octopus go, the crab isn't going to just appear out of thin air. "We won't have a great deal to catch." Read more from Sky News:Trooping the Colour - see best pics The Marine Biological Association is studying factors that could underpin the surge in octopus numbers. The sea around the UK is around 2C warmer than normal. But in the southwest of England the temperature is 3C or even 4C above average for the time of year. Dr Thomas said warmer waters increase survival of young octopus fry over winter, and a change to ocean currents could bring them more food. 'The ocean is changing' Overfishing of species that would normally eat young octopuses may also mean more are surviving to adulthood. "There is no doubt that the ocean is changing," he said. "Fishermen are like the canaries in the coal mine, the first to see things changing out at sea." Scientists say protecting key parts of the ocean as marine nature reserves would serve as a buffer against pressures from human activity elsewhere. So far, 50 nations plus the EU have ratified the United Nations High Seas Treaty that commits countries to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. Another nine need to ratify it for it to become operational. The UK government has said it will ratify the treaty by the end of the year.
Sky News
15-06-2025
- Science
- Sky News
Octopus boom along England's southwest coast down to 'perfect storm'
Why you can trust Sky News Octopuses, sharks and tuna that are booming in the sea around the UK could be part of a fundamental shift in the marine environment, a leading scientist has told Sky News. Dr Simon Thomas, from the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, said a perfect storm of factors, including climate change and overfishing, is leading to a rapid change in the species being found around the coast. "Since 2016, you've seen a lot of our traditional fish, like cod, ling and pollock decreasing in numbers and pushing northwards," he said. "Then we've seen other fish, especially things like bluefin tuna and blue sharks, being found in huge numbers in the water here. "It's almost like you've seen a complete shift in the regime of the ocean." Fishermen on the south coast of Devon and Cornwall are currently catching huge numbers of a large octopus species that is normally rare in the UK. "I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime," said Dr Thomas. "I've spent 40 years at sea and probably seen three or four of the big octopus over the years. Now they are seen regularly and (crab fishermen) are reporting their pots have been decimated." The octopuses are raiding crab and lobster pots for an easy meal. But there are so many of them, and they are so hungry, that fishermen say they are eating not only the bait and crustaceans, but also, at times, each other. Sam Jago, skipper of the Bosloe, returned to Plymouth after a day's fishing with 11 crates of octopuses - a 400kg bonanza that could fetch almost £3,000 at market rates. But he had just over one tub of crabs and lobsters - when normally he'd have more than a dozen. "They crack the shell and suck everything out of it," he said. "It's a quick buck at the moment, but who knows how long it's going to last for. "They will stay here until they've eaten everything. "But if the octopus go, the crab isn't going to just appear out of thin air. "We won't have a great deal to catch." The Marine Biological Association is studying factors that could underpin the surge in octopus numbers. The sea around the UK is around 2C warmer than normal. But in the southwest of England the temperature is 3C or even 4C above average for the time of year. Dr Thomas said warmer waters increase survival of young octopus fry over winter, and a change to ocean currents could bring them more food. 'The ocean is changing' Overfishing of species that would normally eat young octopuses may also mean more are surviving to adulthood. "There is no doubt that the ocean is changing," he said. "Fishermen are like the canaries in the coal mine, the first to see things changing out at sea." Scientists say protecting key parts of the ocean as marine nature reserves would serve as a buffer against pressures from human activity elsewhere. So far, 50 nations plus the EU have ratified the United Nations High Seas Treaty that commits countries to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. Another nine need to ratify it for it to become operational.
Washington Post
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Israel's attack on Iran marks moment of truth for Netanyahu
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on the mission of his lifetime. For years, the veteran leader has made the destruction of Iran's nuclear program his top priority, raising the issue in speech after speech in apocalyptic terms. Now Netanyahu's moment of truth has arrived. After battling Iran's allies across the region following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Netanyahu has turned his attention to what he describes as the 'head of the octopus,' with an unprecedented and open-ended military offensive against Iran and its nuclear program .
Irish Times
12-06-2025
- Science
- Irish Times
What do aliens look like - a crab or an octopus?
One of the unexpected joys of having small children is having to adjust your mindset to the pace and contours of how they experience the world. Unencumbered by the frameworks and presuppositions that we have spent a lifetime acquiring, they tend to approach things with an open and questioning attitude which, while often exhausting, can also be stimulating. Some questions are easier to answer than others; my third favourite dinosaur is Baryonyx, but I don't know enough about the underlying mythos of Paw Patrol to explain why a meteor would confer superpowers on a puppy. But sometimes the questions provoke that same sense of curiosity in me. What do aliens look like? The simple answer is that I don't know and, as far as I'm aware, neither does anyone else. In everyday life, that would be the end of the discussion. But when asked recently, it got me thinking about what our current knowledge would suggest. READ MORE When imagining extraterrestrial life, our minds often leap to little green men or science fiction monsters. But two very different animals are probably our best starting points: the crab and the octopus. [ How will we react when the aliens arrive? Opens in new window ] Why crabs? Because evolution keeps turning up crab-like forms here on Earth. And octopuses? Because they represent a radically different kind of mind, one that could mirror alien consciousness. Understanding these two forms could help us refine our expectations of what alien life would be like. Life on Earth often solves problems in similar ways, even when species are unrelated. Biologists call this convergent evolution: organisms independently evolve similar traits as adaptations to comparable environments or challenges. Dolphins and sharks both developed sleek, streamlined shapes with fins even though their lineages are worlds (and millions of years) apart. Even complex organs can converge; eyes with lenses and retinas evolved independently in both humans and octopuses. In fact, eyes of some form have evolved dozens of times in the animal kingdom. The same selective pressures often result in the same innovations, and so evolution tends to reuse winning designs. One of the most striking cases of convergent evolution is carcinisation, the tendency for evolution to repeatedly produce crab-like creatures. Over the past 200 million or so years, the crab form has evolved at least five separate times. In other words, crabs have evolved not from one single crabby ancestor, but via several independent lineages of crustaceans that all converged on the same general body plan. Evolution, it seems, has a bit of a thing for crabs. Why do crabs keep appearing? The crab shape confers serious advantages in certain environments. In essence, the crab design is like a living tank: well-armoured, good at wedging into hiding spots, and armed with pincers for defence or feeding. Evolution hit upon this winning formula multiple times because, in similar niches, a crab form simply works. Octopuses show us how intelligence can arise under very different biological conditions to ours While crabs are a potential physical template for alien life, octopuses offer a blueprint for minds that evolved down a separate path from ours. Split from our lineage more than 500 million years ago, they developed remarkable intelligence, but in a body plan that decentralises thought. Only a third of an octopus's 500 million neurons sit in the head, the rest in its eight arms. Each limb hosts its own motor-sensor circuits, able to taste, touch and execute complex manoeuvres without instruction from the central brain. That arrangement challenges how we think about subjective experience. Where humans feel a unified self that can direct obedient limbs, an octopus may inhabit a chorus of semi-autonomous actors that occasionally sync. Does it merge those voices into one consciousness, and if so, how? The question fascinates biologists and cognitive scientists because it stretches our picture of what a mind can be. [ Michael Viney: Be kind to octopuses – they're smart, sentient and sensitive Opens in new window ] We tend to imagine the singular self as the default, not least because, by definition, it's difficult for us to imagine otherwise. A species with a networked nervous system could act and plan with a fluid or collective identity. This isn't necessarily alien: ants and bees exhibit colony-level problem-solving. But octopuses show us how intelligence can arise under very different biological conditions to ours. They have no skeleton, live only a few years, and are generally solitary. Yet they exhibit curiosity, playfulness, and problem-solving. They can navigate mazes, open jars to get food, and have even been observed collecting objects to build fortresses. Whatever form aliens take, they'll probably seem strange, at least until we realise how strange we must look in return. Especially if we have to explain Paw Patrol. Stuart Mathieson is research manager with InterTradeIreland
