An ethical committee approval is needed to work with 1.5 millimetre-long squids in the UK, says the Home Office officer who just came back from a trip to the Mediterranean that included many a meal with 25 cm-long grilled squids.

Oh, you are working with late embryos prior to hatching? Then no ethical permits are required. The honorary primate status, i.e., "sentient beings", is only for hatched, free-living cephalopods.

So prior to hatching, cephalopods aren't sentient beings?

In any case, bear in mind these 1.5-mm squids have ~30,000 neurons, about 1/5th of those in the brain of a fruit fly that the same officer doesn't hesitate to squash with an adroit flick of the hand. And for which no permits are required, whatsoever.

And a honeybee, with 600,000 neurons in its brain, is not a sentient being?

None of this will ever make any sense to me. It is not science. Perhaps not even politics. I don't know what it is.

#academia #cephalopods #UK #neuroscience

An ethical committee approval is needed to work with 1.5 millimetre-long squids in the UK, says the Home Office officer who just came back from a trip to the Mediterranean that included many a meal with 25 cm-long grilled squids.

Oh, you are working with late embryos prior to hatching? Then no ethical permits are required. The honorary primate status, i.e., "sentient beings", is only for hatched, free-living cephalopods.

So prior to hatching, cephalopods aren't sentient beings?

In any case, bear in mind these 1.5-mm squids have ~30,000 neurons, about 1/5th of those in the brain of a fruit fly that the same officer doesn't hesitate to squash with an adroit flick of the hand. And for which no permits are required, whatsoever.

And a honeybee, with 600,000 neurons in its brain, is not a sentient being?

None of this will ever make any sense to me. It is not science. Perhaps not even politics. I don't know what it is.

#academia #cephalopods #UK #neuroscience

This is only a few minutes later, but I'm not 100% if it is the same octopus. It looks more annoyed at being discovered than relieved at slipping back into a hole.

I'm not sure why this one is red. Most octopus can control their body color, but I'm also about 30cm away here, much closer than the previous shots. So it may be a combination of lighting, less loss of colour from the water, and octo-feelings.

Body and eyes of Wonderpus, Sogod Bay #Philippines #scuba #cephalopods

This is only a few minutes later, but I'm not 100% if it is the same octopus. It looks more annoyed at being discovered than relieved at slipping back into a hole.

I'm not sure why this one is red. Most octopus can control their body color, but I'm also about 30cm away here, much closer than the previous shots. So it may be a combination of lighting, less loss of colour from the water, and octo-feelings.

Body and eyes of Wonderpus, Sogod Bay #Philippines #scuba #cephalopods

Same octopus, heading for a hole in the sand.

Sogod Bay #Philippines #scuba #cephalopods

A few seconds later my many armed friend had had enough of me and started speeding across the sand.

Sogod Bay, #Philippines #scuba #cephalopods

This "Wonderpus" actually came back out of hiding to check me out after the rest of the group swam a bit farther away.

Sogod Bay, #Philippines #scuba #cephalopods