Tag: Cephalopod
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Tasting by touch, the unique way octopuses explore the world
Imagine you could taste the things your hands touch. You reach out to grab a slice of apple and can already feel its sweetness before it even touches your mouth. Science fiction? Not for the peculiar creature that is the octopus. This invertebrate is able to touch as well as taste its environment through its…
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Turning invisible: lessons from cephalopod cells
Ellie Bennett looks at the way in which cephalopod cells might hold the key to turning our dreams of invisibility into a reality, albeit at the cellular level. There are few other classes of animal that conjure up such feverish images of deep-sea monsters or otherworldly aliens than that of the cephalopods. Translating from Greek…
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An Alien in Our Sea: A look at the intelligence of an octopus
In 2016, one of my favourite sci-fi films Arrival was released, and – mild spoiler alert – it presented us with an alien species named the heptapods, who challenged human perception of the universe and life. Had these species originated instead from Earth, I wouldn’t blame you for assuming them to be related to the…