Part of the octopus’ charm is in its contradictions: they are surprisingly alien-looking, yet express so much curiosity and problem-solving prowess — human traits if there ever were any.

DAVID DOUBILET/National Geographic Creative The octopus is weird: eerily malleable body, sucker-studded arms, skin that can transform into a convincing facsimile of seaweed—or sand—in a flash ...

The lowly octopus has a surprising intellectual ability, two brain researchers report: It can learn a task simply by watching another octopus do it. Learning by observation, which might in this cas… ...

The Octopus Analogy: A New Model for Memory Lead researcher Leo Kozachkov compares astrocytes to an octopus: the cell body is the “head,” and its many processes independently sense and affect ...

Heavy webbing between the arms of a female blanket octopus makes her appear larger than she is. Only females, which can be up to 40,000 times the weight of males, have this webbing.

There’s a great octopus story coming your way tomorrow. For that reason, I thought it was about time to republish this – the first ever post I wrote for Not Exactly Rocket Science, about the ...