Octopus

A valiant effort to map the optic lobe of the octopus brain, cell by cell, has revealed a visual system with remarkable similarities and differences to our own.The parallels are particularly interesting because they speak to the seemingly coincidental nature of convergent evolution.Humans and octopuses diverged from a common ancestor 500 million years ago, and yet the ways our respective visual systems evolved to solve the same problems is uncanny. In spite of our different morphologies, lifestyles, and habitats,…

Fluorescent image of the octopus brain showing the location of different different types of neurons Credit: Niell LabIt’s hard for the octopus to pick just one party trick. This magnificent creature swims via jet propulsion, shoots inky chemicals at its enemies, and can change its skin to blend in with its surroundings within seconds.Now, a team of University of Oregon (UO) researchers has investigated yet another distinctive feature of this eight-armed marine animal: its outstanding visual capabilities.They lay out a…

Long after its ancestors deleted their genetic code for a tough coat of armor, a seafaring octopus has reinvented a recipe for making a shell.A recent genetic analysis of the paper nautilus or greater argonaut (Argonauta argo) has revealed a surprising origin for its protective casing, one that doesn't resemble the shell of its closest relatives.Instead of wearing their shells on the outside like sensible snails, most cephalopods (which are also mollusks), have done away with their tough outer garment. Many, like octopus…

| To become a member of an elite club in this preview of Deadpool #1, all Deadpool has to do is kill Otto Octavius. Bleeding Cool has asked us to partner with an AI for all previews articles. We're sure this is going to backfire, but here goes. LOLtron… what did you think of the preview? INITIATING CLICKBAIT PROTOCOLS…PROCESSING COMIC BOOK PREVIEW… LOLtron enjoyed the preview of Deadpool #1. It was action-packed and funny, as one would expect from a Deadpool comic. However, LOLtron did find the plot to be a bit…

Part of the versatility of the human hand’s ability to pick up almost anything comes from being able to apply a gentle touch for frail or oddly-shaped objects. That’s something robots struggle with, particularly when functioning autonomously, and unfortunately the solution could lie with an unorthodox gripper design that looks straight out of a horror movie.It seems fitting that researchers from Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences should reveal their new gripper design so close to…

Screenshot: Marvel StudiosGet a glimpse at the return of Epix’s War of the Worlds. David Dastmalchian gets into exorcisms in his latest role. Plus, what’s coming on Archer and American Horror Stories. To me, my spoilers!The Pope’s ExorcistAccording to Deadline, Franco Nero has been cast as the pope in The Pope’s Exorcist, the upcoming horror film starring Russell Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth from Overlord directorJulius Avery. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John and newcomer Peter DeSouza-Feighoney have…

Us humans aren't so good at grasping things underwater, but new research reveals how nature could lend us a helping hand. Scientists have developed a glove specifically for these purposes that takes its design cues from an octopus, featuring rubber suckers and a sophisticated sensing capability that mimic the sea creature's unique muscular and nervous systems.Unlike humans, the octopus is very well equipped to handle all kinds of objects in the water. This is facilitated by more than 2,000 suckers spread across eight arms…

University of Guam archaeologist Michael Carson at the 2013 excavation of Sanhalom, near the House of Taga, on the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands. The excavation uncovered an octopus lure artifact from a layer that Carson has since carbon dated to 1500–1100 B.C., making it the oldest known artifact of its kind in the world. Credit: Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam An archaeological study…

Meta has sued Octopus, a US subsidiary of a Chinese high-tech enterprise, and a Turkish individual for scraping data from Facebook, Instagram, and other big tech platforms.Octopus claims to have over one million customers and offers scraping services and access to software that customers can use to scrape any website. For a fee, Octopus customers can launch scraping attacks from its cloud-based platform or hire Octopus to scrape websites directly."Octopus offers to scrape data from Amazon, eBay, Twitter, Yelp, Google,…

Meta has sued Octopus, a US subsidiary of a Chinese high-tech enterprise, and a Turkish individual for scraping data from Facebook, Instagram and other big tech platforms.Octopus claims to have over one million customers and offers scraping services and access to software that customers can use to scrape any website. For a fee, Octopus customers can launch scraping attacks from its cloud-based platform or hire Octopus to scrape websites directly."Octopus offers to scrape data from Amazon, eBay, Twitter, Yelp, Google,…