This comprehensive article on cephalopod neurobiology features interviews with MBL Senior Scientists Roger Hanlon and Joshua Rosenthal and Prof. Clif Ragsdale of University of Chicago.

By Elizabeth Finkel

In 2008 the staff at Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, had a mystery on their hands. Two mornings in a row, they had arrived at work to find the aquarium eerily silent: the entire electrical system had shorted out. Each time they would reset the system only to find the same eerie silence greeting them the next morning. So on the third night a couple of staff members kept vigil, taking turns to sleep on the floor.

Sure enough the perpetrator was apprehended: Otto, a six-month-old octopus. Read more ….