Octopus Shacks Up For Time Travel Sex - http://clapway.com/2015/08/13/octopus-shacks-up-101/

A lot of what biologists have learned about octopi was magnificently reinvigorated by an essay titled “Deep Intellect,” by Sy Montgomery, published by Orion Magazine in 2011. In it, Montgomery reviews what he’s learned of the incredible intelligence of octopi–and their charisma, as well.

“A home, or den, which an octopus may occupy only a few days before switching to a new one, is a place where the shell-less octopus can safely hid: a hole in a rock, a discarded shell, or a cubbyhole in a sunken ship,” she wrote. And now, according to new research on the previously unknown Larger Pacific Striped Octopus, we know that they’re not always holed up alone.

NEW OCTOPUS, FAMILIAR MATING

Yesterday the Associated Press reported that California biologists have begun to study a new octopus living off the coast of central America. Their research, which to date spans two years of empirical study in the recently published journal, totally transforms our understanding of octopi.

The Larger Pacific Striped Octopi are unique in that they enjoy longer lives, and mate, almost anthropomorphically, by shacking up for days at a time in little underwater caves and discarded shells.

MALE OCTOPI SPARED FEMALE SCORN//CANNIBALISM

Many male octopi must beware of being killed and eaten by their mates, but the Larger Pacific Striped Octopi mate “beak to beak,” leading to both partners having an equal level of vulnerability. A mating couple even share the load of housework, as scientists have seen them cleaning waste out of their living spaces. Also, the female of this new species doesn’t die after laying her eggs, as many other female octopi do.

QUESTIONABLE OBJECTIVITY

However, all of these activities were observed in captivity, and so the behavior of this species of octopi could be very different in the wild. Some features are unmistakeable, though. When this new species of octopus gets excited or upset, it changes from its original dull brown color to stripes and spots.

To review other news on Octopi, let’s reconsider that the journal Nature just published the first comprehensive map of the octopus genetic code, which is only slightly smaller than humans. Octopi are invertebrates, and generally the lack of backbone spells doom to any hope of a complex central nervous system. However, for octopi, the lack of backbone just leaves their nervous system hyper-connected, like Vietnamese powerlines.

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Octopus Shacks Up For Time Travel Sex

How appropriate as today makes 24 years after the #JeffreyDahmer arrest. Evidence of #Cannibalism in new regions found in #osteo traces. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/22/cannibalism-a-feast-for-archaeologists-as-cannibalistic-evidence-emerges-114/

In two separate events, archaeologists have revealed evidence that may suggest human cannibalism in China and in the Canadian Arctic — though the events occurred over thousands of years apart. With the 24th anniversary of Jeffrey Dahmer’s arrest today, it seems only appropriate that cannibalism makes headlines to commemorate the capture of the world’s most notoriously known cannibal.

Cannibalism Evidence in China: 100,000-year-old Human Thigh Bones

Chinese researchers have uncovered evidence of cannibalism on two thigh bones believed to belong to an early human child from 100,000 years ago. The bones belong to an extinct early species of humans that Chinese archaeologists refer to as Xuchang Man, named after the city in the Henan province in which it was found.

Lead archaeologist Li Zhanyang pointed out the evidence of cannibalism as marks that indicate bites and even gnawing of the bones. Though the researchers do not deny that animals could have possibly left the marks, they also cannot rule out that a member of the same species feasted on the hominid’s thigh meat.

Whether the researchers will be able to conclusively prove that cannibalism is evident in the thigh bones. The discovery of more bones from the Xuchang man species — a missing link in the human evolutionary timeline — in China is incredible in itself. Also, it’s slightly less morbid than knowing that the hominids that predated our ancestors may have enjoyed feasting on one other.

Trapped in Canadian Arctic Sea, 17th century British Navy Forced to be Cannibals

Over half the world away in the Canadian Arctic sea in 1845, sailors of the British navy met a brutal end as their expedition failed and they were forced to turn to cannibalism to survive. Although plenty of research exists on the 19th century shipwrecked sailors, a new study reveals just how grisly the cannibalism became as the sailors slowly starved to death.

Published in the Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the researchers have suggested that the crew took to a rather brutal and extreme form of cannibalism as the starving sailors not only cut their fellow crew members’ flesh away from the bones, but also snapped the bones, heated the bones in boiling water and sucked out the last bit of nutrition found in the marrow.

The expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, was expected to find a route to the Orient passing through the Canadian Arctic. However, as the seas froze during exceptionally cold winters and heavy sea ice remained for several summers, the crew abandoned the stuck ships, called the HMS Erebus, and perhaps prophetically, the HMS Terror.

The crew could not have expected that their abandonment would lead to one of the most startling, horrific acts of cannibalism for the British.

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Cannibalism: A Feast for Archaeologists as Cannibalistic Evidence Emerges

New Guinea: History of Cannibalism Protects Tribe From Brain Disease - http://clapway.com/2015/06/11/new-guinea-history-of-brain-consumption-protects-tribe-from-diseases-876/

Practice that once caused illness and death now provides immunity to some brain diseases.

A once isolated New Guinea tribe, the Fore, would traditionally consume their dead’s cadavers, including their brains. The men would eat the flesh, while the women and children would consume the brain. The ritual led to problems for the Fore people, since their consumption of a certain molecule living in the human brain caused a terrible degenerative illness named “kuru,” which is known to have killed around 2% of the tribe’s population each year. The practice of feasting on cadavers was outlawed in the ‘50s. Now, a new study shows that there was an upside to the Fore’s consumption of human brains.

 

Gene that protects from brain disease found in study.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, one protective gene is written about as guarding people from prions. Prions are a weird, sometimes lethal type of protein that, though made by the bodies of all mammals, can be deformed in such a way that they turn on the bodies that produced them. Deformed prions can even infect surrounding prions, reshaping them, and thus filling the victim’s brains with tiny holes. These holes end up giving the brain a sponge-like texture, and historically have caused massive outbreaks of mad cow disease in cattle. These prions are directly linked to a weird kind of deadly insomnia that starves a person of sleep until he or she is dead, as well Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which leads to accelerated dementia, memory loss, and eventual loss of speech and ability to move. The gene identified by this study protects the body against prion-related diseases in an interesting way. A tiny alteration in the genome of Fore people kept prion-making proteins from making the disease-causing type of the molecule, which kept them from getting the Kuru illness. Scientists now believe that the changing of prion molecules’ shapes by other prions is likely responsible for the effects of many degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia.

 

Incurable prion illnesses have two causes.

Diseases caused by prions have two causes. One is genetic, where the brain disease is passed down from a person’s parents. The other, which accounts for a smaller percentage of cases, is from consumption of infected tissue. Infected tissue can be eaten accidentally in the form of beef from an infected cow.

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New Guinea: History of Cannibalism Protects Tribe From Brain Disease