All posts tagged: Octopus

TalkTalk dials up effort to salvage future as Octopus deal stalls | Money News

TalkTalk dials up effort to salvage future as Octopus deal stalls | Money News

Published by Sam Flores

TalkTalk Telecom Group, one of Britain’s biggest consumer broadband suppliers, was on Monday evening scrambling to find a new buyer for its wholesale network amid growing doubts over the company’s future. Sky News has learnt that TalkTalk, which has about 1.7 million retail customers, is no longer in exclusive talks with Octopus Investments about a deal for its PXC division. TalkTalk’s advisers from PJT Partners, the investment bank, are said to have spent the last 72 hours trying to elicit fresh interest for the business from Epiris, the private equity firm which was in the running to buy PXC earlier in the summer. The discussions with Octopus – which has been at the centre of a growing row after banning withdrawals from an inheritance tax scheme it operates because of the prospective TalkTalk deal – have not entirely been abandoned, according to insiders. However, there is now only a remote chance of a deal with Octopus – which manages the altnet Fern Trading – being successfully concluded, they said. Just four days ago, Octopus and …

Why Each Octopus Arm Has a Mind of Its Own

Why Each Octopus Arm Has a Mind of Its Own

Published by skeptic

Octopuses are clever enough to unscrew jars from the inside and throw sand at their annoying neighbors. But only a fraction of their smarts come from their doughnut-shaped brains. Over two-thirds of their roughly 500 million neurons reside in eight sucker-studded arms—a kind of distributed intelligence unique to cephalopods. Each of these powerful appendages can move in any direction and taste and feel with exquisite sensitivity. A nerve ring connecting all eight arms enables explorations of the seafloor that is not always governed by the central brain upstairs. What’s it like when your arms have minds of their own? Many mysteries—anatomical, behavioral, and philosophical—remain. But here’s some of what scientists have been able to learn about these unorthodox invertebrates. Source link

Maybe Being a Loner Helps the Octopus Be Smart?

Maybe Being a Loner Helps the Octopus Be Smart?

Published by Jenni Sidey

The octopus (also other cephalopods like squid and cuttlefish) is known to be quite intelligent. But in other respects, this group is an extreme outlier compared to other intelligent animals. At ScienceAlert, Jess Cockerill points out that its strange and fabled brain is once again in the science spotlight: Biologists have long believed that having a large brain, relative to your body, might go hand-in-hand with being part of a particularly social species. This is called the social brain hypothesis, and it holds up pretty well for a particular branch of the animal family tree: ours. We share this branch with a number of other social animals: hoofed herd animals like sheep and goats; pack carnivores, like wolves and lions; whales; dolphins; bats; primates; and possibly birds too. All of these animals tend to follow the relationship described in the social brain hypothesis: Bigger social circles correlate with bigger brains, specifically with the mammalian neocortex. “Octopus Brains Defy a Long-Held Rule About Why Animals Evolve Intelligence,” July 9, 2026 The mammal and bird life forms …

Weighing an octopus starts with a laundry basket

Weighing an octopus starts with a laundry basket

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Just like nurses ask patients to step on the scale at their annual checkup, weight is an important metric in animal healthcare. Measuring some animals’ weight, however, isn’t as straightforward as it is for human patients. The team at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, has devised a great approach for their Giant pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) named Glinda.  A video posted to Facebook shows an aquarist move the pinkish invertebrate into a basket that drains out the water, and then pass the octopus-filled basket to a second person who places it on a scale before handing it back.  “Aquarist Brooke has been working with Glinda, the giant Pacific octopus, to allow herself to be scooped into this basket through …

Octopus-inspired robot arm can feel and grasp like living creatures

Octopus-inspired robot arm can feel and grasp like living creatures

Published by Jenni Sidey

A new generation of robots is beginning to take shape, one that moves, senses, and adapts more like living creatures. Scientists in Italy have developed a soft robotic arm inspired by the octopus, an animal known for its flexibility and remarkable control. The device can feel contact, judge pressure, and grasp objects on its own, even in complex underwater environments. The research, led by Barbara Mazzolai at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, marks a major step forward in soft robotics, a field that aims to build machines that interact more naturally with the world. “We drew inspiration from the octopus to develop a robotic system in which perception and action are integrated and distributed throughout the body,” said Barbara Mazzolai, who directs the Bioinspired Soft Robotics laboratory. Learning From One Of Nature’s Most Skilled Movers The octopus stands apart in the animal world. Its arms contain no bones, yet they can twist, bend, and grip with precision. Each arm also processes information locally, allowing it to react quickly without relying fully on the brain. An …

A New Species of Tiny Octopus Was Discovered in the Galápagos Islands

A New Species of Tiny Octopus Was Discovered in the Galápagos Islands

Published by skeptic

A tiny blue octopus that lives in the deep sea off the coast of the Galápagos Islands is so small that it can fit in the palm of a hand. And as a team of researchers coordinated by Chicago’s Field Museum announced in a new study just published in the journal Zootaxa, it now has an official name—Microeledone galapagensis. The octopus was first spotted in 2015 during a deep-sea expedition aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus. From there, marine biologists used a remotely operated underwater vehicle (RoV) to explore the ocean floor near Darwin Island, at the northern end of the Galápagos archipelago. As the RoV’s camera moved across the seafloor near an underwater slope at a depth of 1,773 meters (5,817 feet), they noticed the tiny octopus with its vibrant blue coloring. By performing a close inspection, the researchers were able to recover the blue octopus and film two other specimens, and then, at the end of the mission, conduct a thorough analysis. It left them puzzled, however, as they were not certain which …

Golf ball-sized octopus discovered near the Galápagos Islands

Golf ball-sized octopus discovered near the Galápagos Islands

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A tiny, bright blue octopus Microeledone galapagensis is small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand, but good luck trying to meet one. According to marine biologists, you’ll likely have to settle with admiring it from afar for now unless you have access to a deep sea submersible—and a ticket to the Galápagos Islands. M. galapagensis is described for the first time in a study published today in the journal Zootaxa, but scientists actually first encountered the octopus in 2015. While conducting a deep sea expedition aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus, biologists spotted the diminutive invertebrate as they piloted a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) along the ocean floor near Darwin Island. Its vibrantly blue coloration stood out from the underwater mountainslope at a depth of about 5,800 feet, prompting a closer inspection. “Is that a cute little guy, or what?” one researcher can be heard saying over the audio feed of an ROV recording. The team …

MEP hits back at ‘fake’ octopus dish served in EU Parliament canteen – POLITICO

MEP hits back at ‘fake’ octopus dish served in EU Parliament canteen – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“Everything was wrong with that fake ‘Galician-style octopus.’ Octopus mixed with squid and broccoli — that’s never been eaten in Galicia. That octopus was as Galician as the Parliament building is Renaissance: not at all,” Vázquez said. His dinner’s guest list includes Galician President Alfonso Rueda and Suso Pereira, head of the association of traditional octopus cooks. In an April email to MEPs and assistants seen by POLITICO, Vázquez made clear this is more than a culinary gripe, pointing to Galicia’s fishing sector. “Following the notorious fake polbo á feira that we discovered in the canteen, the time has come to put this sector back in the spotlight,” Vázquez writes. “In the spirit of this sacred mission, I am delighted to invite you to a real Galician feira.” “We promised that in Parliament they would get to know the traditional recipe, and we are delivering,” Vázquez told POLITICO, pointing to plans to scale back fisheries policy. “Galicia is Europe’s leading fishing power, and we cannot stop fighting every battle to ensure it remains so,” he added. It’s not …

Photos of the Week: Giant Octopus, Scooter Waterfall, Sunrise Panorama

Photos of the Week: Giant Octopus, Scooter Waterfall, Sunrise Panorama

Published by José Betancourt

Cheney Orr / Reuters A reveler smokes cannabis at the Mile High 420 Festival in Denver on April 20, 2026. Alex Nicodim / Inquam Photos / Reuters Young people take part in an initiation ritual where they are tossed into the air by others using a rug, during a spring festival in Brașov, Romania, on April 17, 2026. Martin Meissner / AP Artists perform during the opening of Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial-technology trade fair, in Hannover, Germany, on April 19, 2026. Ian Forsyth / Getty Davros the Dalek interacts with visitors to Scarborough during the Sci-Fi Scarborough weekend on April 19, 2026, in Scarborough, England. Takashi Aoyama / Getty An archer in traditional clothing shoots an arrow at a target while riding a horse during the 42nd Asakusa Yabusame (Horseback Archery) on April 18, 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. Nhac Nguyen / AFP / Getty A street-food vendor uses a cellphone while waiting for customers on a street in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 17, 2026. Maxim Shemetov / Reuters Staff members carry a humanoid …

Giant octopus once roamed the seas, study says | Science, Climate & Tech News

Giant octopus once roamed the seas, study says | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

A giant octopus, likened to a mythical creature said to be capable of dragging ships to their doom, roamed the seas during the age of the dinosaurs, according to researchers. Fossils of its jaw structure indicate it ranged from seven to 19m long and lived during the Cretaceous period, about 86 to 72 million years ago. The species – Nanaimoteuthis haggarti – was an apex predator and is one of the largest invertebrates ever recorded. Researchers compared the creature to the mythical kraken, a legendary, colossal sea monster from Scandinavian folklore. “These animals were remarkable. With their large bodies, long arms, powerful ​jaws and advanced behaviour, they represent what could be described as a real Cretaceous kraken”, said palaeontologist and lead author Yasuhiro Iba of ‌Hokkaido University. You need javascript enabled to view this content Enable javascript to share Share Footage shows octopuses ‘punching’ their hunting assistants to ‘keep them in line’. The body of a modern giant squid can reach 12m in length, but Nanaimoteuthis haggarti would have been even bigger. Mr Iba said …