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Originally published June 23, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Author: Lori Jia
I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog while I’ve been off visiting grandparents in other states this past week. But in the meantime, Slate has published a piece I wrote for them on the beguiling mystery of octopus brains. I wonder if this guy would find it enlightening.
Update: A couple readers pointed out to me that I should have said octopuses jet water, not air. Sorry for the slip–it should be fixed shortly.
Originally published June 22, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Courtney writes:
So, φ, the golden ratio (an honest to goodness irrational number that’s equal to 1.618…) appears all over the place and is considered to be the particular ratio associated with beauty. It comes up in discussions about architecture, the spiral on seashells, and the path a hawk in flight takes as it swoops to catch its prey (the vegan in me doesn’t like to contemplate that last one).
Chris writes, “This is an image of a female Cave Weta – A New Zealand indigenous insect similar to a grasshopper, except much larger.”
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Originally published June 21, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
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Originally published June 19, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.