What I read
The BBC News article "Octopuses on ecstasy drug 'become more social'" (2018) reports that, although some scientists think the experiment should be redone with different procedures and more animals, the responses of octopuses exposed to the drug ecstasy, the psychologically powerful MDMA, are similar to the human response of increased sociability reflected in more physical contact. This has led the researchers to suggest that it might not be the sophisticated design of our brains that led to human socialization, but the effect of more anciently evolved chemical responses acting across nerve cells, which in the case of octopuses are not centralized as in human brains but spread out across their arms.
___________________________________
My response
I had already read a longer account of this research in The New York Times (NYT) last night, whose title, "On Ecstasy, Octopuses Reached Out for a Hug," had caught my attention as I was browsing with my evening coffee. The NYT article is a bit longer and gives more information about the human attraction to the party drug ecstasy, also called E, which I believe is illegal in Thailand and most other countries. (If this were a research paper or essay, I would do the research, but it isn't.) I also like the NYT's thought-provoking title more than the BBC's rather boring one. But the BBC article was useful for my class this morning, so I was pleased to see it as I was enjoying my morning coffee.
I hadn't known before that octopus brains are spread out across their bodies, being loosely connected nerve cells in the centre and in each arm. This is certainly very different to our own brains. We humans like to think that we are special, that we are better than other animals, mainly because of our brains, and I agree with this. It is, after all our brains that let us learn languages, make music, understand the world around us well enough to be able to control it and even to explore the world beyond Earth. No other species on our planet has ever known that it is 4.5 billion years old, or that they were related to every other living thing. But it's useful to be reminded that we are related to every other living thing on Earth, from monkeys, to dogs, to corn and bacteria, and this sort of research also helps us to better understand not only our connection to the rest of life on Earth, but how we work on the same evolved mechanisms, many of which are far more ancient than our very recent species that now dominates the planet, to the expense of most other species except those that are useful to us, like pigs and rice.
Perhaps it's helpful to remember that the bright young teens and others getting high on ecstasy at dance parties are doing what their evolved biology has programmed them to do over millions of years before we humans even existed.
I hadn't known before that octopus brains are spread out across their bodies, being loosely connected nerve cells in the centre and in each arm. This is certainly very different to our own brains. We humans like to think that we are special, that we are better than other animals, mainly because of our brains, and I agree with this. It is, after all our brains that let us learn languages, make music, understand the world around us well enough to be able to control it and even to explore the world beyond Earth. No other species on our planet has ever known that it is 4.5 billion years old, or that they were related to every other living thing. But it's useful to be reminded that we are related to every other living thing on Earth, from monkeys, to dogs, to corn and bacteria, and this sort of research also helps us to better understand not only our connection to the rest of life on Earth, but how we work on the same evolved mechanisms, many of which are far more ancient than our very recent species that now dominates the planet, to the expense of most other species except those that are useful to us, like pigs and rice.
Perhaps it's helpful to remember that the bright young teens and others getting high on ecstasy at dance parties are doing what their evolved biology has programmed them to do over millions of years before we humans even existed.
___________________________________
My question
Is there anything thing that makes us humans totally different to other animal species, all of which are our relatives?
___________________________________
Reference
- Octopuses on ecstasy drug 'become more social'. (2018, September 22). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45600372
No comments:
Post a Comment
Before you click the blue "Publish" button for your first comment on a post, check ✔ the "Notify me" box. You want to know when your classmates contribute to a discussion you have joined.
A thoughtful response should normally mean writing for five to ten minutes. After you state your main idea, some details, explanation, examples or other follow up will help your readers.
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.