68. Octopuses on Ecstasy, and Dickinsonia’s Descent

Last week two scientific papers appeared about animals. Both were about particular kinds of creatures, but both bear also on our overall picture of animal evolution. One was an octopus study, where the animals were given the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and the effects on behavior were observed. That paper also did cross-species analysis of a gene affecting the cellular mechanisms that transport serotonin, a brain chemical, into cells, and found that octopuses and humans share similar v...