Although any tentacle is able to perform any task, in the wild, octopuses, apparently, prefer to use the front tentacles for surveillance, and the rear ones for movement. The octopus does not have right- and left-handed tentacles. They use both sides approximately equally often. This makes Osminov special, since they are relatives of snails. Previously, such complex behavior was known only to primates, rodents and fish.
Michael Kuba, a professor of zoology of the University of Neapolitan, studied these animals for many years and was one of the reviews of the study. “The most important thing in the abilities of the octopus is that he should and can control the body, which is almost incomprehensible to us,” he said. According to the scientist, this requires tremendous brain power.
Management of such a flexible body is interesting not only to biologists. Researchers hope to use their discoveries to develop new robots in the field of soft robotics. Tasks that only could only be performed by robots with a hard skeleton can perform “octopuses” without bones.
Engineers plan to use this in several areas, said a robotics engineer from Singapore University, Cecilia Laska. Among them are the production of food products, automated production and, above all, medicine. When working inside the patient’s body, it would be possible to use soft robotics technologies to create soft endoscopes that can safely move around the organs, but at the same time it is better to adapt to a limited space and perform specific tasks. Among the tasks there may be taken tissue samples, stop bleeding or remove foreign bodies.
This can minimize the risk of injury to the body and vital organs during surgery. However, this technology is still at the initial stage of development, and many robots are currently undergoing clinical trials. They are not yet available for serial use on operating tables.
A full study of scientists is published in the journal Nature.
Context
Tagesschau notes that the octopus has a highly developed nervous system, arranged in a completely different way than that of vertebrates. This endows them with intelligence, which for a long time was attributed only to such animals as crows, pigs and dolphins.
Professor Tim Kolson from Oxford University believes that the appearance of Osminov has every chance of becoming the main thing on Earth if people disappear.
