Is Smell the Key To an Octopus's Heart?
We know that octopuses have awesome visual systems and super-sensitive suckers. We have even learned that they can hear. But little scientific attention has been paid to their sense of smell.
Stories by Katherine Harmon Courage
![Inside the 4 U.S. Biocontainment Hospitals That Are Stopping Ebola [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/E1E8DB9B-D034-4D0C-9DBE02199455ADBF_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Inside the 4 U.S. Biocontainment Hospitals That Are Stopping Ebola [Video]
Four small but well-equipped wards across the U.S. provide a front line of treatment for highly infectious diseases and bioterrorism attacks
How Did Nigeria Quash Its Ebola Outbreak So Quickly?
What we can learn from the boot leather, organization and quick response times that stopped Ebola from spreading in this African nation
How Did a Dallas Nurse Catch Ebola?
Health authorities scramble to figure out what went wrong with containment
CDC Launches Ebola Response Team
In the two days since the second U.S. Ebola patient was diagnosed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has assembled a new team to battle the threat of Ebola.
Party with These 8 Famous Octopuses to Celebrate Octopus Awareness Day!
It’s Octopus Awareness Day, and although we at Octopus Chronicles treat every day as if it were a celebratory day for the cephalopod, today it gets extra special treatment.
![Glowing Octopus Bacteria Light Up Living Lamp [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/F4880532-5D1A-4913-9E3D06A971D06E2F_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Glowing Octopus Bacteria Light Up Living Lamp [Video]
Octopuses might be charismatic, but not many can literally light up a room. One enterprising designer, however, has figured out how to repurpose bacteria from rare glowing deep-sea octopuses for terrestrial illumination.
![First Common Octopus Cannibalism Filmed in the Wild [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/D2364E2D-2C2B-4256-BDF84DB651B085FA_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
First Common Octopus Cannibalism Filmed in the Wild [Video]
Perhaps it’s time we stopped feeling quite so bad about eating octopus. Octopuses dine on other octopuses, too. And for the first time, that behavior has been caught on video in the common octopus in the wild—three times.
![Wireless Robot Octopus Swims with the Fishes [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/D88A1C8C-64C5-4B2A-80C269B6D3144431_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Wireless Robot Octopus Swims with the Fishes [Video]
Robot octopuses can already walk, jet along and even grasp tools. But new advances have these machines swimming faster than ever. And thanks to the addition of soft, fleshy webs, they’re starting to look—and move—much more like the real thing, too.
Eight Great Octopus Videos!
It’s Octopus Chronicles‘ 88th post! To celebrate, I’ve gone on an all-arms hunt through the deep crevasses of the internet to find eight of my favorite octopus videos.
Will Climate Change Bring an Invasion of the Octopuses—Or Halt It?
Climate change is bad news for many species. Environments are changing more rapidly than plants and animals can adapt to—or move out of—them.
Common Octopus Proves Uncommonly Difficult to Define
The seemingly ubiquitous common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is our platonic octopus ideal. Even if Plato didn’t write about it, Aristotle did.
![Dumbo Octopus Gives Rare View [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/A17DC7A3-1BC3-43E7-A261F006A91419E5_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Dumbo Octopus Gives Rare View [Video]
New, stunning video from a deep-sea vehicle reveals a rare view of the Dumbo octopus. Don’t let the name fool you—the Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis) is no dummy.
Octopus-Inspired Camouflage Flashes to Life in Smart Material
Octopuses and their cephalopod cousins are the undisputed masters of disguise. An octopus can change its color, texture and luminosity faster than you can say “camouflage.” So far our lowly human attempts at imitation have been quite crude.
Happy 8/8! Can You Spot These 8 Hiding Octopuses?
We must wait patiently two more months until the official International Octopus Day. But August 8th (8/8) is reason enough to celebrate these awesome, eight-armed creatures.
Octopus Eggs Need Helpful Bacteria To Stay Healthy, Too
We’re just learning how important certain microbes can be to our own health. They can help us digest foods and protect us from harmful invaders.
Mother Octopus Sets Longest Egg-Tending Record: More Than 4 Years on Baby Watch
Animals can take a year to gestate, but a deep-sea octopus has broken all previous records, hatching her eggs after 53 months
Scrawny Wonderpus Puts Stranglehold on Mightier Mimic Octopus
Earlier this week, we learned that female octopuses sometimes strangle—and then possibly eat—their male mates. For a cannibalistic animal with long arms, perhaps we—and the male—should have seen that one coming.
Female Octopus Strangles Mate, Then Eats Him
Octopuses do the darndest things. Like kill their mate during mating—by strangling him with three arms, according to new observations from the wild.
DNA Finds New Octopus Species Hiding in Plain Sight
Describing a new species for science is not quite as easy as it was in the days of 17th- or 18th-century naturalists. But that just means we have to look a little more closely.