Ailsa Chang is the host.
Some people are studying the mind of an animal to see if it is similar to human intelligence. The evolution of the tree began 500 million years ago. To find out how their intelligence works, we're going to turn the mics over to Emily Kwong andAaron Scott, co- hosts of Short Wave.
A lot of stories have been written about how smart the octopus is. I like how they are escape artists. The aquarium I grew up in had a problem with fish disappearing from their tanks in the night.
Alan Scott is byline.
The staff figured it out after a few days through the hallway cameras.
Scott doesn't think it's possible.
It sneaked out of its tank for a snack and then came back in before the lights went off.
It sounds like an episode of "Octopus CSI" I think it's great.
It's really serious.
Stephani Gordon and I went to Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island to meet Dominic.
That's awesome, Koon. I am anticipating a trip. My friend, set the scene.
There is a building on the edge of the harbor. Tanks are running along the walls of the room that he is in. There are pipes that carry water. Each of the octopuses has its own tank full of toys and rocks, as well as full-on security measures.
The cover is on.
There is a clip of coverage.
I'm fully on and then bricks. I sleep better because the bricks may be too much.
He removed the bricks from one of the tanks when we arrived. This is the moment when he places his fingers on the surface of the water, and then this small octopus comes out of the corner and stretches out her arms to touch his fingers.
Lizbeth is this person. She is a giant Pacific sea creature. If she spread her arms out, she can be over 20 feet tall.
It's true, Scott. Right now she is not close to that. She is a foot across. It was cool to see how her suckers worked their way across his fingers.
SIVITILLI: Our finger might have hundreds of mechanicalreceptors. There are tens of thousands of mechanical and chemicalreceptors on a sucker. The benefit of being able to taste and smell the world around us is that each sucker is more mechanically sensitive than one of our fingers. Each sucker has a local computation center where most of the information is being processed, which makes it possible to do this.
Scott says that each sucker has a little mini brain of its own. The thick bands of neurons that run the entire length of the octopuses' arms are created by the small processing centers.
We humans are so focused on our brains. The central command center in our craniums is where everything we see and process about the world comes from.
It's difficult to imagine how these animals are feeling. Ours and theirs are completely different when it comes to their nervous system and perception. Most of our neurons are found in our arms and suckers.
Dominic says it's distributed intelligence.
It sounds like they have distributed intelligence. The suckers in arms are thinking for themselves.
Scott said that Dominic was trying to figure it out. He created a puzzle box that has rows of crevices, and he put some shrimp into one of those crevices, and then set the box on the wall of the tank so that Lizbeth could see it, but all she could see was a black box. She runs her arms into the holes after crawling under the box.
SIVITILLI: Let's go. It's possible you can do it.
She is looking for a snack. One sucker pulls the shrimp up to her mouth after it is wrapped around the other suckers.
She was able to get it.
Is she able to get it?
It's true, Gordon.
I think it's excellent. The girl is a good one. The mind of an animal.
It appears that the sucker is used to coordinate. If you find something of interest, it will tell the next sucker. The sucker will move towards the prey.
There is a chain reaction happening in these arms.
Scott is absolutely correct. It's a good way to think about it. He analyzed hours of footage of different animals doing the test. The stronger a signal they all send to the brain, the better. It's similar to upvoting something on a website.
I'm curious about the evolution of the system.
It has something to do with the fact that we can only move our arms and fingers with our skeletons, Scott said. An animal with eight arms can bend it's arms in a variety of ways. You think about the fact that they can't see anything because they hunt in the dark. They are being guided by each sucker as they explore these rock walls. There is a lot of information that needs to be processed at the same time.
The brain will send a generalized command to multiple arms at once and let them figure it out from there. The suckers with all their receptors are well-equipped to find interesting things in the world.
Dominic is one of the most interesting things to look for in the lab.
If they see me in the lab, they will approach, go to the edge of their tank and watch what's happening. They seem to be studying me in their own way while I study them. I discovered that there are many different types of intelligence out in the world and possibly the universe while studying the octopus. It isn't about how smart they are. It is about how smart they are.
It's a part of science that helps us understand things on their terms.
It's absolutely true. It's absolutely true. That is the point that Dominic is trying to make with this research.
There is a music video.
The co- hosts of NPR's daily science show Short Wave were mentioned. If you subscribe to Short Wave, you'll get the full episode about the alien mind of octopuses, as well as more stories of science and wonder. There is a video that was produced for Oregon Public Broadcasting. You can watch that on the video sharing website.
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