Octopus intelligence may be related to never-before-seen mutation

throw310822

Pure, shameless clickbait as usual from Smithsonian magazine. > Although there is no direct evidence that the adaptation is linked to expanded octopus brainpower, I.e. the entire connection between this mutation and octopus intelligence is made up. Not even a shred of justification.

jjk166

Correlation does not imply causation and it's not even clear this qualifies as correlation.

BatFastard

I found the article very interesting. Not click bait at all. I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body.

fmjrey

I would imagine their intelligence is directly proportional to the so many degrees of freedom the arms have for grasping, but don't ask which one came first, chicken or egg?

yieldcrv

lets splice in a gene fix for cephalopod senescence and get the invasion over with

doodlebugging

>If we “use nature as a guide to understand how that happens naturally,” she says, “then we can probably find ways to put it into human cells.” Oh boy! Please hurry up with this. I want brains in all my appendages so I can adapt in real time to all the environmental conditions that I am encountering moment to moment. Test it first though, maybe on a rat or a planarian. Your choice. EDIT: I know this is great research. Understanding how evolution has allowed other species to adapt to their environments and overcome conditions that would be dangerous helps us assemble the pieces of the puzzle of the origin of life. I just don't think that the first thing we should be considering when we find something that makes an organism unique is the question of how we can insert genetic change into the human genome. If humans had ever needed it the mutation would already be present through natural selection. If the end game is always to modify the human genome then there is no reason to do the research on other organisms. Set up the conditions with humans and run a few generations through. The ones who make it likely have some genetic difference that predisposes them to winning that part of life. No need to rush things. Do it once, do it right.

taf2

Reminds me of the children of time books - think it’s the second book with the octopus

FpUser

It is a pity they have such a short lifespan

pash

What does it mean to “produce proteins with about twice their usual accuracy”? Smaller feature size, essentially?

piazz

Can we CRISPR it into humans? I volunteer. I’ve always wanted to improve my protein folding accuracy.