Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this episode
of SciShow. Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to
learn more about their course on Knowledge
and Uncertainty.
[ ♪INTRO ]
A couple years ago, some people floated around
the idea that octopuses came from another
planet.
They don’t, but there is something almost
otherworldly about them.
And that’s probably because they have tons
of strange and amazing adaptations that help
them live their best lives underwater.
In fact, much like aliens in a scifi movie,
there’s a lot they can teach us. So: Here
are eight incredible things we’re learning
from studying octopuses!
You might have noticed that the undersides
of octopuses’ arms are covered in hundreds
of little circular things that look — and
act — like suction cups.
They’re super sticky and attach to most
surfaces: rough or smooth, and wet or dry.
And once they’re stuck, they can stay that
way for a long time without the octopus doing,
well, much of anything, really.
And not only are they energy-efficient, they’re
also incredibly strong.
A sucker the size of a pencil eraser can lift
about 150 grams — or, approximately a baseball’s
weight.
And each of the roughly six-centimeter suckers
of a giant Pacific octopus can lift up to
16 kilograms. And they have thousands of them.
That’s a lot of staying power. Which is
why engineers have taken a close look at octopus
suckers to uncover their sticky secrets.
Turns out, the sides and edges have tiny grooves
in them, which increases the surface area
for sticking and helps them adhere to rough
surfaces.
They’re also made of super soft tissue,
kind of like a jellyfish, which makes them
more elastic.
And that elasticity allows them to bulge and
compress to form a tight seal with different
surfaces.
Researchers are already using octopus suckers
as the inspiration for new adhesives and suction
cups that work better than what we have now.
Like, ones that can be removed and re-stuck
without losing stickiness and that can adhere
to rough surfaces.
That would allow us to make all sorts of useful
things, from adhesive electronics that monitor
medical information to graspier robot arms.
Now, octopus suckers can stick to pretty much
everything — and yet, you never see an octopus
stuck to itself.
This is especially surprising since research
has shown that an octopus’s arms aren’t
represented in its central brain at all.
Each one is controlling itself and moving
completely independently.
And in part, that’s because there are molecules
in the skin that inhibit the suckers’ reflexive
grabbiness.
But they can choose to have one arm grab another.
So, even though the central brain doesn’t
fully control the arms, it can override this
“don’t grab” molecular signal.
Scientists call this kind of partial centralized
command embodied organization.
Basically, it’s when a controller — in
this case the brain — a body, and the environment
all influence each other.
And engineers would love to use a similar
strategy in autonomous robots, because it
makes performing a variety of complex tasks
more efficient.
Instead of programming the robot’s central
computer with instructions for what each robot
body part should do in every situation, the
brain, body, and external sensors would learn
from the information coming from the other
systems.
Think about an arm swinging as a robot moves
at different speeds.
If you had to program exactly how each joint
should move to make it swing the perfect amount
at all times, you’d have to input a ton
of information into the central computer.
But if you’re able to rely on the natural
physics of the shape of the arm, and it can
provide feedback to the brain as it moves,
you don’t need nearly as much initial programming.
So this type of embodied organization can
make information processing a lot more streamlined
and efficient — and that means, if robots
can “think” more like octopuses, they
could do even more cool stuff.
Our arms only have a few joints, each with
a limited range of motion.
But octopus arms can move in virtually any
direction at any point along the arm, including
lengthening, shortening, or stiffening.
This means they can use their arms for, well,
everything — from squeezing through the
tightest spaces to opening clamshells for
food.
And that’s why octopus arms are providing
inspiration for a new generation of robotics.
These robots are soft and flexible, but also
able to exert large amounts of force.
Some designs use a series of compartments
that can be individually filled with air to
mimic octopuses’ movements.
Another uses cables to recreate the muscle
structure that lets octopuses move the way
they do.
Either way, researchers are interested in
using these soft-bodied robots to do things
robots with human-like appendages couldn’t
even dream of.
Like, complete diverse tasks underwater, but
also perform surgery more precisely, and,
in their tiniest form, detect and capture
individual pathogens in the body.
Of course, no conversation about octopuses
could be complete without talking about their
skin.
Octopus skin can display all sorts of colors
and patterns, and even create weird textures
to help them blend in with their environment
— something we often want our structures,
vehicles, and personnel to do better.
The colors and patterns of octopus skin are
thanks to something called chromatophores.
These are organs connected to muscles that
can expand or contract when the animal is
excited, revealing or hiding the pigments
inside.
And octopuses can manipulate these to match
to colors it sees around it — either with
its eyes, or potentially, with light-sensitive
receptors in its skin.
On top of this, when an octopus contracts
certain muscles, sections of skin called papillae
pressurize and stretch, causing bumps to appear.
So their skin can provide a ton of inspiration
when it comes to better camouflage.
For instance, some researchers have developed
a fabric that has light-sensitive sensors
embedded in it.
When the light changes, the fabric automatically
changes between light and dark patterns.
Other researchers are creating programmable
camouflaging membranes that use air to go
from a flat, two-dimensional surface to a
3D texture — much like papillae.
And hopefully, that will allow whatever it
covers to blend into the background.
Even though octopuses usually move by walking
along the seafloor, they can swim.
They draw water into a central body cavity
and then quickly push it out through a small
opening in short bursts, propelling themselves
forward.
This method uses a lot of energy, but it’s
a really fast and effective way to avoid predators.
And moving this way could be a lot faster
than conventional propulsion designs like
propellers — which is why researchers are
basing new underwater propulsion systems on
these cephalopods.
One such robot was able to travel up to ten
times its body length per second.
Plus, since there aren’t external blades,
boats with octopus-like propulsion could be
less damaging to undersea habitats and animals.
Researchers in Germany have even 3D printed
one of these, and in addition to moving fast
and being less dangerous to marine life, it’s
completely silent.
Which would be nice for those on board as
well as below the waves, since marine animals
are often scared by boat noises.
Between predators, mating, and sometimes actually
eating themselves, octopuses get injured a
lot.
But that’s okay — they’re also masters
of regeneration!
After being injured, an octopus folds skin
over the wound to protect it while it heals.
Special cells then remove dead and decaying
tissue, keeping the wound nice and clean.
And if that wound is an entire arm, they don’t
just heal the end of the stump.
Octopuses can regrow a complete functioning
arm — with nerves, muscles, tissue, and
all— in about 90 days.
They can also regrow parts of their hearts
— because, they have three, you know — and
in some rare cases, their corneas. And...
maybe even parts of their brain?!
All of which we would love to be able to do
for ourselves. It’s literally the entire
point of the field of regenerative medicine.
Which is why lots of researchers are studying
octopus healing in extreme detail.
They want to know everything — the types
of cells involved, what they do, how everything
gets reorganized, you name it — because
all of it can teach us more about how to regrow
damaged human tissue.
And octopuses are especially great for this
research because they regenerate so many different
types of organs and cells!
We haven’t used any intel from octopuses
to actually regrow our body parts yet. But
just give those researchers a little more
time!
Despite their ability to regenerate, octopuses
do eventually die…. usually after reproducing.
After a female octopus lays tens to hundreds
of thousands of eggs, she settles in for the
long haul.
She’ll protect them until they hatch, never
leaving them unattended — not even to grab
a snack.
For most octopuses, mommy duty lasts a few
weeks to a few months. But in one extraordinary
case, a mother octopus watched over her brood
for 53 months.
That’s four and a half years without eating
or doing anything else! That’s dedication.
And it almost makes me feel better about the
fact that, afterwards, she rested… forever.
Now, this extreme motherhood is interesting
and all, but it might not seem super relevant
to us.
But the key thing to realize is that, after
all this, the female doesn’t die because
she starves.
Rather, it’s because she ages. And when
her duties are complete, hormonal signals
tell her cells that it’s time to let go
completely.
It turns out that the drive to ignore everything
except parental duties and the wave of programmed
cell death are both controlled by a gland
behind her eyes called the optic gland.
If this gland is removed, the mama octopus
will abandon her nest, go in search of food,
gain weight, and sometimes even mate again.
And she’ll live significantly longer than
octopuses who wait around for their eggs to
hatch.
But what’s especially interesting is that
this gland is the octopus equivalent of our
pituitary gland.
That means studying it could help us better
understand what our pituitary gland does and,
in particular, its role in aging.
And a deeper, molecular level understanding
of how and why these mamas die the way they
do could, just maybe, provide clues for keeping
people or their tissues alive longer.
That’s not the only life-extending trick
octopuses may have hiding up their eight sleeves.
They may also be a great source for pharmaceuticals!
And that’s because — get this! — all
octopuses are venomous.
Research suggests that they gained their toxic
abilities at least 300 million years ago,
before they split from their cephalopods cousins
like cuttlefish.
These venoms can help keep predators away
from their soft, unprotected bodies. But mostly,
they’re useful for hunting.
They can drill into their prey’s shell and
inject a paralytic venom. Then, with the meal
immobilized, they can liberate the tasty meat
from its protective casing.
And these venoms can pack more of a punch
than you might think! For instance, the tiny,
blue-ringed octopus can actually kill a human
with a single bite.
But, they might also help us live longer.
Venoms in general are super useful for developing
new drugs.
That’s because the toxins in them often
have very specific targets, which means they
can be used to do really specific things to
our bodies.
That’s what you want in a pharmaceutical
— since, you know, side effects aren’t
awesome.
Drug developers have tapped venoms for drugs
that modulate the immune system, keep blood
from clotting, shrink tumors, and kill microbes.
But because scientists only recently learned
that all octopuses are venomous, we’ve only
begun to examine their potential.
Really, that’s true of most aspects of octopus
biology — there’s still a lot we don’t
know about them.
So while we’re already learning a ton from
these octo-armed creatures, plenty of opportunities
remain to discover bizarre and surprising
features.
And when we do, we’ll probably be able to
borrow from them to develop new technologies
and learn about ourselves.
But if you don’t want to wait to keep on
learning, you might be interested in a course
from Brilliant.
Like, their course on Knowledge and Uncertainty.
Because there’s a lot of uncertainty out
there right now. This course is designed to
give you the tools to understand what we don’t
know, and deal with the flood of information
we’re exposed to day in and day out.
Brilliant has a ton of interactive, engaging
courses designed to help you sharpen your
skills in science, engineering, computer science,
and math .
And they’re designed by career educators
and lifelong learners, so they know how to
help you learn.
Right now, the first 200 people to sign up
at Brilliant.org/SciShow will get 20% off
an annual Premium subscription to Brilliant.
And by checking them out, you’re helping
to support SciShow too — so thanks.
[ ♪OUTRO ]
