IRA FLATOW: This
is Science Friday.
I'm Ira Flatow.
One group of animals seems
to universally unite people,
no matter whom they are.
I'm talking about cephalopods.
Everyone has a favorite.
I'm sure that you do.
From the color-changing
octopus to the multi-chambered
nautilus, everyone
has a question
about these smart, colorful
undersea creatures.
How do they move?
How do they change
shape and color?
How intelligent are they?
Because we know they
are really smart.
And how to researchers
study these animals?
Or what is your
favorite, and why?
Please tell us.
So, we decided to devote
some special time to dive
in to your squid and cuttlefish
questions and talk about some
of the latest ceph research.
It's time for ask a
cephalopod scientist.
Our guide through this
cephalopod celebration
is Dr. Sarah McAnulty.
She's a squid biologist
and assistant research
professor at the University
of Connecticut in Storrs.
She's also executive
director of Skype A Scientist
and a tireless tweeter
about her favorite friends.
Welcome to Science Friday.
SARAH MCANULTY: Thanks
so much for having me.
IRA FLATOW: Just a note
that this interview
is recorded in front
of a live Zoom audience
because we want listeners to
be part of these interviews.
And we want answer
your questions.
So please, as I
say, don't be shy.
Sarah, you recently graduated
from your PhD program.
Congratulations.
SARAH MCANULTY:
Thank you so much.
IRA FLATOW: How did you
become so interested and--
I think falling in
love with cephalopod?
SARAH MCANULTY: I have been
interested in biology broadly
since I was a little kid.
I first started as being
interested in dinosaurs,
and then I went to the
library with my mom
all the time when I was young
in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
And one day, we checked out a
videotape all about the ocean.
And about halfway through,
Twilight Zone music
started playing, and they
introduced the cuttlefish.
And they were doing this
really amazing behavior
called passing cloud.
I didn't know that was what
it was called at the time.
But effectively, it looks like
a hypnotic wheel is passing
over the cuttlefish's body.
And I thought that was the
wildest thing I had ever seen.
And I was pretty much hooked
on cephalopods from that moment
on.
IRA FLATOW: Would you call
yourself a cephalopod fan girl?
SARAH MCANULTY: I suppose.
Fan woman at this
point, perhaps.
But yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, that's
not how they say it.
But you're absolutely right.
It would be fan woman.
You study the Hawaiian
bobtail squid.
Why focus on that squid?
SARAH MCANULTY: That's
a great question.
So, the Hawaiian bobtail
squid is really phenomenal,
specifically for studying
how animals and bacteria have
these beneficial
relationships with
each other-- these successful
communications-- that we
have in our body, too.
So we have, of course, bacteria
on our skin, in our gut,
and they are totally
essential for our health.
The nice thing about
the bobtail squid
is that they have just
one species of bacteria
in these specialized
organs on their underside
called the light organ.
And so, those
bacteria produce light
that allow the
squid to camouflage
with moonlight coming
down from above.
Now, my work covers basically
how the immune system
can tell the difference between
beneficial bacteria and all
the other bacteria that squid
may encounter in the seawater.
IRA FLATOW: That's cool.
What are some of
the big questions
that you have still left over?
You've been studying
these bobtail squid
for quite a while.
What don't you know yet
that you got to know?
SARAH MCANULTY: One of
the things we really
want to know, specifically
with the female bobtail squid,
is how they can pick out
the consortium of bacteria
that they'll eventually
have as an adult in what's
called an ANG.
That's short for accessory
nidamental gland.
And now, this is a super
cool organ also associated
with bacteria.
Imagine like a
pile of spaghetti,
and each spaghetti strand
has a different species
of bacteria inside of it.
When the female squid
go to lay her eggs,
she'll wrap the baby
squid in coats of jelly
that if you cut it in half,
looks a lot like an onion.
And so each jelly layer has a
bunch of bacteria all in that
jelly.
And so, she'll lay her
eggs, and unlike an octopus
that constantly cleans
her eggs, she'll
just leave them under
a coral bed or a rock
and go swim away to lay
another clutch another day.
So, the bacteria
in the egg protect
the baby squid from
bacteria, fungus,
and potentially other things
in the water, as well.
And so, we want to know,
basically, what compounds--
or what chemicals-- are the
bacteria creating to protect
the squid, and how
does the female squid--
when she's first developing
as a little baby squid--
how does she pick out
the right bacteria?
Because there may be like 100
different species in there,
but there's way more than 100
species in her environment.
So how the heck is she
picking the right stuff?
IRA FLATOW: That's why
she's there and we're here--
SARAH MCANULTY:
That's exactly right.
IRA FLATOW: Because she knows
how to do that kind of stuff.
We have calls.
We have viewers coming in
who have some questions.
Let's go to our first question.
Let's go to Linda Keenan.
And she asks, are there
other sea creatures
who communicate or signal
by changing their skin color
and shape the way octopuses do?
That is a great question.
SARAH MCANULTY: That
is a great question.
So, cephalopods are not the
only animals that change color.
Fish change color all the time,
but not quite as quickly as
cephalopods do.
So I personally
know much, much more
about communication between
cephalopod species then
fish, for example.
But it's possible fish do it.
I know fish definitely
change at night.
They'll go from being
maybe brightly colored
on the reef to these more
light and dark patterns,
because it's more
easy to camouflage
when you have light and
dark patterns at night.
So that's one way.
It's not so much
communication as hiding,
but reef fish do it every night.
IRA FLATOW: There
is another question
that came up earlier that--
I'm glad you're on
because I really wanted
to know the answer to this.
Earlier this month,
scientists used
CRISPR to make the first
genetically altered squid.
Why is that such a big deal?
What is so exciting about
being able to do that?
SARAH MCANULTY:
This is truly huge.
Because a lot of times
in cephalopod research--
in the research that I've done
and many others have done--
we get kind of to this
wall of understanding,
where you really
need to start playing
with the genetics of
the animal that you're
studying to really piece out
the mechanism of how things
are happening.
And so, the one
challenge with squid
is that they're really
rubbery, honestly.
And so, when you're
playing with CRISPR,
often what you have to do is
take a very, very tiny needle
and inject it into a
little squid embryo.
And so, when it
comes to some cells,
they're very easy to puncture.
And with the squid,
it's like trying--
it's just like--
the needle sometimes
would just bend when you
would try to poke the squid.
And so it was a
collection of challenges--
including raising the
squid in captivity--
that have all kind
of come together
at the Marine
Biological Laboratory
to just overcome these obstacles
and make a genetically modified
squid happen.
And now that we can do it
in the market squid, up
in Massachusetts,
we can hopefully
do it in a whole
bunch of other species
as well, so that we can
understand specifically
what genes are playing
around with communication
of bacteria and animals, or
other questions, as well.
IRA FLATOW: Have you in your
own laboratory done this needle
thing?
Trying to poke--
how hard it is--
you break needles
trying to do it?
SARAH MCANULTY: I broke
all kinds of things.
It was so hard.
Yeah, so I did a workshop
with Judith Pungor,
who is another scientist who
works on this kind of thing.
And she had us basically taking
teeny, teeny, tiny scissors
and snipping part of the egg
in order to get the needle in.
And so, we use this
bright green dye
to inject so we could see
whether it worked or not.
And wow.
Yeah, it was easier said
than done, for sure.
Took a very steady hand.
IRA FLATOW: Wow.
I couldn't do that.
That's why I'm sitting here
and you're sitting over there.
Let's go to our next
listener, Terri Kirby
Hathaway in Outer
Banks, North Carolina
has a question for you.
TERRI KIRBY HATHAWAY: I do.
Thank you for calling on me.
And I want to say, I
love your Twitter feed,
I'm one of your
followers on Twitter.
So I was excited
to see you on here.
My question is about
your bobtail squid.
Is the bacteria that
produced the light
for the bobtail squid-- is it
the same as the bacteria that
produces the light
in flashlight fishes?
SARAH MCANULTY: That's
a great question.
Yes.
So, the bacteria that
we're talking about
is Vibrio fischeri,
and it shows up
in a lot of different places.
In the lure of anglerfishes, in
pinecone fish, in those little
undereye areas.
So, yeah.
It shows up in a lot
of different animals.
It's a slightly
different strain.
So if you took the bacteria
out of the pinecone fish
and you tried to put it in
a squid, doesn't go so well.
If you took the
anglerfish bacteria out,
it-- again, doesn't really
jive with the squid.
But it's the same species.
IRA FLATOW: Great answer.
Thank you.
Thanks for calling.
Thanks for getting-- you're the
first person on our Zoom call,
ever.
So, we'll put a little bit
of trivia on our website
about that.
Let's go to another question.
Greg Miller, hi.
Welcome to Science Friday.
GREG MILLER: Hi,
how are you doing?
IRA FLATOW: Hey there.
Go ahead.
GREG MILLER: Hi.
I think cephalopods are
absolutely brilliant, very
intelligent.
And I just want to know how you
test cephalopod intelligence.
SARAH MCANULTY: Another
excellent question.
So, I recommend
that everybody read
this book called Are
We Smart Enough to Know
How Smart Animals Are?
And the answer is, barely.
So, it's really, really hard
to compare different animal
intelligences, because
what one animal needs
to get by can be very,
very different from one
another animal needs.
So for example, if
a squid looked at us
and saw that we couldn't
change color at all,
they might think that we're
not very smart at all.
Even though we can talk
to each other with words,
and they don't hear
that well at all.
And so, you really
have to think about--
what is intelligence to
this animal's lifestyle,
and how do you
compare one animal
to another when those
lifestyles are so, so different?
So, we might think that a
bacterium-- for example--
is not particularly intelligent.
But they can do things
that we could never do.
And so, that question--
I'm not just trying to send the
question right back to you--
but determining
animal intelligence
in terms of a
quantitative, this animal
is smarter than this
animal is really tough.
But you can test kind of what
they're capable of doing,
in terms of problem solving.
You can give them
association tests, mazes,
trying to recognize themselves.
These are common things
that animal behaviorists
use to try to figure out
what they're capable of.
IRA FLATOW: Do they have
the brain like we do?
I mean-- because they--
normally, some of these
fish don't have them,
or some of the animals
that live in the ocean
don't have these big
brains like we do.
SARAH MCANULTY:
They do have brains,
and they're quite large.
And also, fun fact,
they're donut-shaped,
which is one of my favorite
squid facts of all time.
Their esophagus goes
through their brain,
and so they have to eat
very small little bits,
because if they were
to take a huge chunk,
it would squeeze their brain,
which can't be comfortable.
But they have one central
brain, and then octopuses
have ganglion, which are
collections of neurons that
are not quite a brain, but
still a collection that
is capable of doing some stuff.
And those are each
in the arms, so it's
kind of like they have eight--
or nine, rather-- brains,
the central brain, and then
the eight brains in the arms.
IRA FLATOW: Donut brain.
That must be the Homer
Simpson of cephalopods
to have that donut brain now.
I want to talk more about some
of these really interesting
species.
There's something called
the strawberry squid that
has two different-sized eyes.
On purpose?
SARAH MCANULTY: Yeah.
The strawberry squid is one
of my favorite squid species,
because it can really show you
how different cephalopods can
be from one another.
Cephalopods have been on
Earth for 500 million years.
That's longer than trees.
It's longer than sharks.
They've had a lot
of time to evolve
these really wild adaptations.
And the strawberry squid
is a phenomenal example.
For those of us
in the Zoom call,
I've made a doodle of the
strawberry squid for today.
So--
IRA FLATOW: That looks great.
SARAH MCANULTY: You've got
two different eyes here
that are for two
different purposes.
So, facing toward the
surface of the water,
the strawberry squid has
this big, bulbous, yellow eye
that you see here.
And so, while it's looking
up, that yellow color
is filtering out different
wavelengths or colors.
And so, it helps the
squid differentiate
between counterillumination--
so animals
that are using color or
light to kind of disappear
among the light coming
down from above,
which is super, super faint
because they're super deep.
And so there's really not
much light to work with.
And you need a huge eye to
pick up all the light you can.
And then the eye that they
tilt downward is much smaller,
and it's specifically used
for detecting-- we think--
bioluminescence down
where they live.
And so, maybe the
small eye is used
to detect food for that
night, whereas the bigger eye
is looking up to
make sure there's
no predators coming from above.
And on top of
that, they also are
covered in what's called
photophores, which
are bioluminescent
organs all over what's
called their mantle, or
their body, basically.
IRA FLATOW: Wow, is that cool.
In case you're just
joining us, I'm Ira Flatow.
This is Science Friday
from WNYC Studios.
We're talking with Dr. Sarah
McAnulty, newly-minted PhD Dr.
McAnulty.
She's a squid biologist,
assistant professor
at the University
of Connecticut,
and the ultimate squid geek,
I think, that I've ever met.
She has this great
squid air about her.
Do you live and
breathe squid even when
you're not in the laboratory?
Do you talk about it incessantly
and drive people crazy?
SARAH MCANULTY: Yeah.
I try to give my personal
friends a break from squid,
just so that I can
maintain friendships.
But yeah, even my car is
called the squid mobile,
and it has a phone
number on the back
that you can text
for a squid fact,
as long as you're not driving.
IRA FLATOW: Oh wow.
Send us a photo of that.
We'd like to spread that around.
Let's go to our next
listener, Elena Stewart.
Hi.
Welcome to Science Friday.
ELENA STEWART: Hey, Ira.
Thanks for taking my call.
IRA FLATOW: You're welcome.
ELENA STEWART: I was
wondering about differences
or similarities between how
different cephalopod species
use light and color
to communicate.
SARAH MCANULTY: Cool.
So, there's a lot
to work with here.
So, all right.
We've got a couple different
ways that they go about this.
First of all, you have their
color change that we can see,
which is--
they use their
chromatophores to do that.
So those are those little
color-changing cells
that expand and contract
to show the color.
And so, for example, we've
got the Caribbean reef
squid that lives pretty much
from Florida on down quite
a while.
And they will signal
to each other--
effectively, whether they're
friendly or aggressive.
And so, when a mating
pair gets together,
the male and female will
hang out for quite a while.
And they can really get precise
in who they're talking to.
So for example, the
female will have
this sort of brownish color on.
That's her friendly pattern.
And the male will split his
pattern down the middle of his
body, so that he's showing a
friendly pattern toward his
mate, but an aggressive
pattern-- like a white color--
to everybody else around,
to kind of indicate
to the males in his area
that they should back off.
And so, there's this one video
that you should go on YouTube
and look for, where the male and
female are swimming together,
and the male changes the side
of the female that he's on.
And right as he's behind
her, he switches the colors
from one side to the
other, so you can really
see that he wants her to know
that he likes her and wants
everybody else to know that
they should swim elsewhere.
But that's not it.
So, we've got the
color camouflage.
That's one communication.
That's one form.
But something that we don't
understand quite as well
is what's called
polarized light.
And so, your colors
have a wavelength.
That's the color that we see.
But the polarization is kind
of-- think of as the angle
that the light is coming from.
And that's not something
that our eyes can pick up.
But cephalopods can see
the polarization of light.
And they can use
structures on their back
to control what angle
the light is coming from.
And they can put
patterns on their back
that we think they're
using specifically
to communicate with each
other that we can't see.
So there's still work
to be done there.
But that's super cool.
And then light is the
whole other can of worms--
that mostly animals deeper
down are using, partially
to impress potential mates, and
also to hide or confuse prey.
IRA FLATOW: Now,
it just struck me--
you reminded me that one of
the first videos we ever made--
Flora Lichtman, who was our
video producer back years ago--
she did a video called
Where's the Octopus?
Which has now gotten
over a million views.
And the octopus was--
I can't think of the
scientist's name--
Roger-- you probably know him.
SARAH MCANULTY: Roger Hanlon.
IRA FLATOW: Thank you.
I knew you would know.
Roger Hanlon stumbled
upon this octopus
as he was swimming underwater,
and he sort of gasped,
and there was--
because it looked just like a
rock sitting on the surface--
sitting on the floor.
And it picked itself up, and
it could camouflage itself
with whatever it came onto.
And you could not find--
Do cuttlefish do
that the same way,
or do all cephalopods have a
different method of camouflage?
SARAH MCANULTY: It's all--
so some cephalopods,
there's overlapping skills
that not everybody has.
So, octopuses and cuttlefish
are both incredibly
good at color change
and shape change--
the octopuses being
the maximum shape
changers because they don't
have any big, hard structures
in their bodies that
they have to deal with.
So, there are structures
in cuttlefish and octopus
skin called papillae,
which basically
allow flat skin to raise up.
One of the most impressive
species that does this
is the giant Australian
cuttlefish, Sepia apama.
They basically look like they're
growing eyebrows sometimes.
It's wild to watch.
And so, really,
really big protrusions
can come off their skin.
And just when they--
as quickly as they
can think, they
can put those little spikes
up or flatten them down.
And that really
helps when you're
trying to look like an
algae-covered piece of rock
or coral or what have you.
Squid are not as--
they don't have as many papillae
to work with, basically.
IRA FLATOW: I'm
looking out there.
I see Linda Keenan on
our Zoom has a question.
Hi, Linda.
She's from Silver
Spring, Maryland.
LINDA KEENAN: Thank
you, can you hear me?
IRA FLATOW: Sure can.
Go ahead.
LINDA KEENAN: I wanted to know
if squid swim more or less
at the same depth, or
do they swim very far
up or down in search of prey?
SARAH MCANULTY: It
depends on the species.
So, the Hawaiian bobtail
squid that I work with--
I mean, we can catch those
squid in ankle-depth water.
We'll go out at night
on sand flats in Hawaii,
and they'll be all
over the place.
And during the day, they
just bury in the sand
where they are.
You can find them at 30
meters' depth sometimes,
or ankle depth.
Now, the market squid
that you may have consumed
in calamari at some point--
I know calamari is having a
real moment right now because
of Rhode Island's recent
push for everybody
to eat more calamari--
they will basically-- over
the night and day cycle,
at night a lot of
plankton and other animals
will go toward the
surface of the water,
and the squid will
follow them up
because that's
where the food is.
And then during the
day, sink again.
And so, there are some squid
that follow that pattern, some
that stay deep
all the time, some
that stay shallow all the time.
IRA FLATOW: You know
you're so close to squid
in your laboratory, and
you are so fond of them.
Is it painful at all
to talk about calamari,
about eating them?
SARAH MCANULTY: It used to be.
But I have to
remember that we have
to think of the whole
ecosystem when we're thinking
about how to feed humans.
And so, calamari
compared to fish
is a more sustainable
seafood because squid
can reproduce so quickly.
So if you're thinking
about sustainable seafood,
squid-- generally
speaking-- are a better
choice than a fish that may
take 30 years to become sexually
mature.
This may change.
But for now, squid
are a better choice
than fish for sustainability.
IRA FLATOW: OK.
Let's go back out to
Zoom, to Annette Woglinski
from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Hi, Annette.
ANNETTE WOGLINSKI: Hi.
Thanks for having me.
I am fascinated by the
strawberry squid's eyes
being different sizes.
And my question is, how
did they evolve, and do we
see this anywhere else?
SARAH MCANULTY: That's
a good question.
How did that evolve?
I don't know.
Sometimes the wildest
stuff comes up in evolution
that you just kind of marvel at.
It was super helpful for them.
It must have been beneficial
at some point in evolution.
I can't think of
another animal that
has two different sized eyes,
but if you gave me an hour
to think on it, I might be
able to come up with something.
Ira, can you think
of anything that has
two different kinds of eyes?
IRA FLATOW: I'll keep my
relatives out of this.
But no, that's--
I really can't think of
anything at the moment.
SARAH MCANULTY: That is a
really, really good question.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah.
Symmetry is really big
in nature, isn't it?
I mean, even in physics they
talk about supersymmetry
as symmetry in animal kingdom.
Straight down the middle.
Let's go to another study that
was out earlier this year,
where researchers made--
now, this sounds wild--
3D glasses.
They made 3D glasses
for cuttlefish?
Tell us about that.
SARAH MCANULTY: This was one
of the cutest things I've ever
seen in my life, a cuttlefish--
it truly looks like the 1980s
3D glasses--
one blue, one red eye glass
just stuck on to a cuttlefish.
So the reason the
scientists were
putting 3D glasses
on a cuttlefish
is they really
wanted to know how
they're doing depth perception.
Because we know that cuttlefish
need to see their prey
and need to be super precise
in how they strike their prey.
If you watch a cuttlefish
eat, they kind of
will put all of their
arms into a point.
And the tentacles, which
are the parts that actually
grab the food will be in the
middle, and slowly eking out,
and then all of a
sudden, in a flash,
will snap out and grab the prey.
So they need to be really
good at knowing how
far out to throw
those tentacles.
And so, they wanted to see how
that depth perception works.
And it turns out, it works
very similar to the way we do.
It has stereopsis--
or stereo vision--
which really involves a lot
of brain-eye coordination
and power.
They also did a study
beforehand on mantis shrimp,
which are also a really
interesting animal in terms
of vision, because
they can see--
I think they have 16 types
of cones which detect color,
compared to us--
we only have three.
So the mantis shrimp are another
really interesting species
for vision.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, I used
to have one in my aquarium.
SARAH MCANULTY: Really?
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, they would--
SARAH MCANULTY: That's awesome.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah.
They were very loud.
Let's go back out to
Zoom to Anne Pappa.
Hi.
Welcome to Science Friday.
It's Pappa, I think.
I'm sorry.
See, yeah, it's a
real Science Friday.
I messed up somebody's name.
So we know it's legit.
ANNE PAPPA: It's Pappa.
Yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Go for it.
ANNE PAPPA: I recently saw
a picture of an octopus that
was the size of a
fingernail, and I
was wondering for
cuttlefish-- what's
the smallest cuttlefish and
what's the largest cuttlefish?
SARAH MCANULTY: Ooh.
What's the smallest cuttlefish?
I know the smallest squid.
The biggest cuttlefish,
without a doubt,
is the giant
Australian cuttlefish.
They can be a meter long in
mantle length, which is huge.
One of my bucket list
items is to go to Australia
in early summer, late spring--
our time.
It's winter their time--
and check out that mating
aggregation, because it's
really apparently stunning.
The smallest cuttlefish-- I
know there's a dwarf cuttlefish,
but I can't promise that
it's actually the smallest.
But can I tell you
about pygmy squid?
IRA FLATOW: No one's
going to stop you.
Go ahead.
SARAH MCANULTY: Great.
OK.
So, pygmy squid are
super, super tiny.
They're about the length
of your pinky fingernail.
They're like 16
millimeters long.
And they are
fantastic and amazing,
but we've only really
recently realized
how cool they are behaviorally.
And so, let me tell you
a little bit about that.
They have the ability to
create this sticky substance
that's on their back, and then
stick to a blade of sea grass,
and it's--
I kind of like to call
them the Post-it notes
of the sea, because they
just look like a little goofy
squid stuck out of the top
to a piece of sea grass,
and then they pivot their little
faces around to look for food,
and it is really cool.
And on top of that,
they also use their ink
in a really peculiar,
awesome way.
They will squirt out
a little blob of ink,
and then hide behind
that ink from their prey,
and then quickly jump through
the ink and attack their prey.
So they're basically
creating a hunting
blind with their ink,
which is wild, and so cool.
IRA FLATOW: That is cool.
That is cool.
How has the pandemic
affected you
and other cephalopod
researchers?
Has it had an effect?
SARAH MCANULTY: Yes.
It's been tough, but--
I mean, it's been tough
for all scientists.
Anybody working with animals
is really sort of stuck,
because if we can't go
into the lab every day
to take care of them, it
sort of creates a problem.
The one benefit of working
with Hawaiian bobtail squid
is that their lifespans
aren't all that long.
And so, for an
animal that may only
live about five
months in the lab,
we were luckily right at the
end of kind of a squid cohort.
So we wrapped up that
cohort and then just
didn't get any more squid.
I was going to go back to
Hawaii to collect in June,
but that was unsafe,
so we didn't go.
I am theoretically
supposed to go in January,
but I kind of doubt that
that's going to happen either.
So we have to just
cross our fingers
that everyone gets
healthy again so that we
can hit the ground running.
IRA FLATOW: Speaking
of healthy, what
about all the squid and all the
cephalopods and everybody's lab
during the pandemic?
Did they leave them there?
Are they OK?
What happened?
SARAH MCANULTY: I know
the ones at the NBL
are being taken care
of just as normal.
So, because the scientists
weren't going into the lab
as often, they didn't breed as
many cephalopods to be studied.
So, there's just sort of
like a pared-down family
of cephalopods there.
There are still all the species
that they had before, I think.
But Bret Grasse
and Taylor Sakmar
just didn't breed up as many.
So it's like a
calmer kind of thing
in there going on right now.
IRA FLATOW: You know, you
reminded me of a few years ago,
there was a new octopus--
a cute little octopus
that we tried--
I think we talked
to you about it--
called adorabilis.
SARAH MCANULTY: Oh my goodness.
Yes.
IRA FLATOW: What did-- did
they-- we tried to get it
named because it
was so adorable.
Whatever happened?
Did it work?
SARAH MCANULTY: That's
a good question.
I mean, I know there are a
lot of cephalopod researchers
who call it adorabilis, still.
I know Bret is one of them.
And I think of it as
adorabilis, as well.
I don't know what the official
names on the books is.
IRA FLATOW: That was so cute.
SARAH MCANULTY: But it
is cute as heck, yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Cute little octopus.
You know, we have
run out of time.
I can't believe it.
It's gone by so quickly.
I want to thank you, Sarah,
for taking so much time
to be with us today.
Absolutely terrific on
our first Zoom meeting,
and you've
inaugurated it for us,
and hopefully we'll
have many more of them.
Dr. Sarah McAnulty
is a squid biologist
and assistant research
professor at University
of Connecticut in Storrs.
She's also executive director
of Skype a Scientist.
And you can watch the entire
video of this interview
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Thank you all,
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100 folks joined in on
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We're so happy to
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We'll see you next time on Zoom.
Have a great weekend.
I'm Ira Flatow.
