Wily Octopi Walk on Two Arms

Posted by Zonk on Friday March 25, 2005 @06:33PM from the coming-for-you dept.

lousyd writes "Offering hope for new forms of ambulatory robots, biologist Christine L. Huffard, at UC Berkeley, has caught individual octopi sneaking away from predators by using two of their arms as legs. They use the other six arms to make themselves look like coconuts or algae. The research is being done as part of a project on robotics. This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the cows drop to all fours when humans come around, but resume standing on two legs otherwise." And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.

2 of 233 comments (clear)

Seems pretty neat... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-03-25 18:35 · Score: 0, Troll

But can they juggle while doing it?
Re:Octopus! by Thing+1 · 2005-03-26 05:42 · Score: 0, Troll

And, surrounded by that cluster of four-foot long arms is a powerful parrot's beak the size of a small tangerine [...]

First of all, how would the octopus get into a tree in order to steal it?
Second of all, where would the octopus find a parrot that large?

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