Researchers link octopus intelligence to never-before-seen ribosomal RNA mutation
Scientists found a genetic variation in shallow-water octopuses that boosts protein accuracy, possibly explaining their cognitive abilities.
What to know
- Scientists discovered a genetic mutation in ribosomal RNA unique to shallow-water octopuses that allows their cells to produce proteins with roughly twice the accuracy of other animals.
- The mutation is present in all five examined shallow-water octopus species with complex nervous systems but absent in deep-sea octopuses and squids, suggesting it evolved to support cognitive demands.
- The study's authors explicitly state there is no direct evidence linking the mutation to intelligence, though the correlation between its presence and behavioral complexity is notable.
- The finding hints the adaptation emerged to support rapid expansion of octopuses' distributed nervous systems as they adapted to competitive shallow-water environments.
The dispute Whether the article's framing constitutes irresponsible clickbait given the study's explicit disclaimer that there is no direct evidence linking the mutation to intelligence. · positions read across 16 posts and comments
The headline oversells the findings by implying a causal link to intelligence when the study contains no direct evidence for it.
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“Pure, shameless clickbait as usual from Smithsonian magazine. Although there is no direct evidence that the adaptation is linked to expanded octopus brainpower, I.e. the entire connection between this mutation and octopus intelligence is…”
throw310822 · Hacker News
The article is substantive and genuinely interesting; the distributed nervous system aspect alone is noteworthy and not clickbait.
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“I found the article very interesting. Not click bait at all. I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body.”
BatFastard · Hacker News
The mutation and protein accuracy finding raises genuine questions about octopus neurobiology and distributed consciousness.
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“It's like 9 brains, one central one in the head and 8 semi-autonomous ones in the arms. Makes one wonder what an octopus consciousness is like.”
goatlover · Hacker News
“Although there is no direct evidence that the adaptation is linked to expanded octopus brainpower, only a lineage of creatures with enlarged nervous systems and that can carry out complex behaviors appears to have the mutation.”
Study authors, Researchers · Current Biology / Smithsonian Magazine
Richard Han Research scientist, Harvard Medical SchoolNicholas Bellono Molecular biologist, HarvardRishav Mitra Study co-author
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The record 2 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 16 voices from 1 site · verbatim
- Aug 25
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> I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body. Our skin cells communicate in a neuron-like fashion, albeit much more slowly:
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> I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body.Yep, distributed around, though with concentrations in some areas.They have a concentration of neurons in a sort of doughnut shape gathered around the mouth and oesophagus area, their gullet actually goes through the middle of their most dense brain area.Very large…
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Can we CRISPR it into humans? I volunteer. I’ve always wanted to improve my protein folding accuracy.
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No biological process is 100% precise. DNA copying being imperfect is the driver of evolution, which is the prime example of this. What I assume they're referring to is that their ribosomes just "make fewer mistakes" when creating proteins from mRNA.These "mistranslated proteins" are normally infrequent and benign, and their material is recycled…
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What does it mean to “produce proteins with about twice their usual accuracy”? Smaller feature size, essentially?
- Aug 24
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In some sense this (not as literally as this case, but in measurable scientific tests) is true for other species. Processing is demonstrated to be distributed through sense organs in the frog in What the Frogs Eye Tells the Frogs Brain https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4065609, i.e. in frogs at least, the eye is not like a camera sending pixels…
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Yep, they do some cognition in their arms. You also do some processing in your ears and your eyes. There is a lot of evidence that you learn to recognize certain stimulus in the neurons outside of the "brain".
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Reminds me of the children of time books - think it’s the second book with the octopus
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You might find the recent Theories of Everything podcast interview [0] with Peter Godfrey-Smith interesting. Godfrey-Smith is the author of "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness," which is a great read to delve further.Two other interesting aspects of cephalopods: * Make many more changes to RNA than other…
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lets splice in a gene fix for cephalopod senescence and get the invasion over with
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It's like 9 brains, one central one in the head and 8 semi-autonomous ones in the arms. Makes one wonder what an octopus consciousness is like. Is it distributed among the nine brains, or focused on the central one? If the latter then the arm-brains would be zombie minds. It's also possible the 8 arms have their own separate experiences.We also…
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I would imagine their intelligence is directly proportional to the so many degrees of freedom the arms have for grasping, but don't ask which one came first, chicken or egg?
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Not only that, they have the highest ratio of brain-to-body-mass of any invertebrate.
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I found the article very interesting. Not click bait at all.I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body.
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Correlation does not imply causation and it's not even clear this qualifies as correlation.
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Pure, shameless clickbait as usual from Smithsonian magazine.> Although there is no direct evidence that the adaptation is linked to expanded octopus brainpower,I.e. the entire connection between this mutation and octopus intelligence is made up. Not even a shred of justification.