Doryteuthis pealeii, often called the “Woods Hole squid” by locals, is a longstanding model for cellular neuroscience, beginning with Nobel Prize winning research on nerve impulses in the 1950s. Studies with Doryteuthis pealeii have led to major advances in neurobiology, including description of the fundamental mechanisms of neurotransmission. At the MBL, it is used as
MBL’s Roger Hanlon and Bret Grasse shared their octopus expertise with CBS’s Chip Reid on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” airing Jan. 12. It’s one of the most bizarre creatures on Earth, and not just because it looks so different. The octopus can camouflage itself in a flash; squeeze its entire body through a one-inch hole;
Matt Everett, an undergraduate at Northeastern University, spent a six-month co-op (extended internship) with Taylor Sakmar and Bret Grasse in MBL’s Cephalopod Operations program. Everett was given an independent project to pursue: Figure out how to raise the Lesser Pacific Striped Octopus (Octopus chierchiae), which had never been cultured in captivity before. He relished the