This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Today, after more than three years, I must bid farewell to Octopus Chronicleson ScientificAmerican.com. It has been a wild, weird, and fun run. Thank you to all who have come along for the swim!
I began this blog as an outlet for all of the amazing octopus research that I couldn't fit into my book (Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea—freshly released into its fittingly shell-less paperback form). And once the book was all wrapped up, I was able to keep learning about the latest strange and surprising discoveries—be they about octopus bacteria or octopus robots. (And, honestly, I couldn't just "quit" octopuses cold turkey.) As I mentioned in my 100th post earlier this month, I never expected there to be so much astounding—and wide-reaching—research coming out around this single animal. Thank you to the editors at Scientific American for giving octopuses a chance! And a special thanks again to Ivan Phillipsen for allowing us to use his most wonderful octopus illustration for this blog.
Of course the octopus research out there in the world will not stop. In fact, it is only accelerating. Expect to see much more about regenerative medicine, genetics, materials science, evolution and ecology in the near future. (You can also do yourself a favor and set up a news or Google Scholar alert for new octopus developments.)
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I plan to continue covering the octopus beat for Scientific American and other outlets in more news stories, features and perhaps occasional blog posts elsewhere. Perhaps one day Octopus Chronicles will even reanimate somewhere.
In the meantime, you can follow me at my own website (www.KatherineCourage.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/katherineharmoncourage) and, of course, through Twitter (@KHCourage) for everything octopus-related—and more! You can also continue to read up on all of the old (102!) archived posts here at Octopus Chronicles.
I will leave you all with my very favorite octopus video, which happens to be from my very favorite (and very first) octopus story, and, in fact, the one that started it all: my book, this blog, my octobsession (and my husband's cepheadaches). So here you have it: tool wielding octopuses.
Read More: "A Tool-Wielding Octopus? This Invertebrate Builds Armor from Coconut Halves"
As they have outlived the blog they inspired, they will almost certainly outlive us humans as well. Here's wishing you another 300 million years of awesomeness, octopuses!
For more about the octopus pick up a copy of Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea, now also out in paperback!
Illustration courtesy of Ivan Phillipsen
