MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon is senior author on this new study. Newswise — There are more than 300 species of octopus living in diverse habitats that span coral reefs, seagrass beds, sand plains and polar ice regions where they feed on lower trophic levels. Most famous for having eight arms (octopus comes from the
By Eric Reikowski Oakland University doctoral student Sarah Denha traveled to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts this summer to take part in a neurobiology course that introduced her to cutting-edge research techniques taught by leading experts in the field. The course, “Neurobiology: Mechanisms and Advanced Approaches,” was directed by faculty from UC Berkeley and
The MBL Cephalopod Program provided the squid eggs to this Florida museum. In early July, 10 hummingbird bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi) arrived at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum on Sanibel from Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, along with a clutch of viable eggs. While the adult squid went directly on exhibit, the clutch of eggs
University of Chicago Professor Neil Shubin, a science commentator for WTTW in Chicago, discusses the remarkable memory capacity of cuttlefish, a discovery recently reported by former MBL Grass Fellow Alex Schnell and MBL’s Roger Hanlon. The segment starts at 2:00. An international research team has found that cuttlefish retain sharp memories of specific events even
By Rajaneesh K. Gopinath In recent times, RNA editing has emerged as a technology with a promise to replicate the achievements of gene editing. Eclipsed by the CRISPR frenzy for years, RNA editing is now beginning to draw its deserved recognition. “Thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, today, everyone is aware of mRNA. RNA is the superstar
By Katherine J. Wu Cuttlefish, with their blimp-shaped bodies and eight squiggly arms, don’t age like people do. Sexual maturity tends to come late for them—about three-quarters of the way through their two-year lives, the rough equivalent of a human hitting puberty in their 60s. The geriatric cephalopods will then spend several weeks on an
Major technological breakthroughs in science have been enabled by MBL scientists and alumni, including Osamu Shimomura, Eric Betzig, and Ed Boyden. By Mark Zimmer Watson and Crick, Schrödinger and Einstein all made theoretical breakthroughs that have changed the world’s understanding of science. Today big, game-changing ideas are less common. New and improved techniques are the
By Maria Temming Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching wings. But some species flit about using mostly transparent wings. [MBL] researchers have now uncovered the tricks that one of these — the glasswing butterfly (Greta oto) — uses to hide in plain sight. Researchers viewed the wings of these Central American butterflies under the microscope. There
By Nicholas Gerbis Prior to the pandemic, the public mind largely equated genomic medicine with editing DNA — the cell’s architectural reference library. But patrons of reference libraries don’t check out originals; they make copies. In cells, scientists call those copies messenger RNA, or mRNA. “It’s the intermediary that takes instructions encoded in your DNA
By Thoru Pederson About 2 years ago, I offered on these pages a story of how a group of residents in the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts had mobilized as to a road named for Louis Agassiz.1 He was for more than half a century the world’s leading geologist2 and, after immigrating to the United States