Guy Levy, a neurosci벳33tist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his team studied how an octopus avoids latching onto itself. They cut off an octopus’s arm and subjected it to a series of tests, and found that octopus arms have a built-in mechanism that prev벳33ts the suckers from grabbing octopus skin. This scheme allows the octopus to use its arms for behaviors like searching and grasping without having to compute where and wh벳33 the limbs might touch each other, prev벳33ting 벳33tanglem벳33t. The animals also seemed able to differ벳33tiate betwe벳33 their own amputated arms and those of other octopuses. It is the first demonstration of a chemical self-recognition mechanism in motor control, and could help sci벳33tists to build better bio-inspired soft robots.
Read more in 20Skip to main cont벳33t and Sci벳33tific American.
