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Discoblog

Posts Tagged ‘octopus’

“Octopus Head War” Pits Korean Health Officials Against Fishermen

tentacleCharges by South Korean health officials that octopus heads contain large and unhealthy amounts of the heavy medal cadmium have sparked a war with the fishermen who profit from the $35 million-a-year trade.

Octopus heads are a popular delicacy in South Korea, revered by locals for their health benefits and their supposed role as an aphrodisiac. About 12 million octopuses are sold for eating every year, says the LA Times:

Nakji, a dish featuring baby octopuses, head and all, is a popular snack at sporting events. Another dish, sannakji (“live octopus”), features squirming tentacles dipped in a sesame oil and salt sauce. Enthusiasts have been hospitalized after a wiggling tentacle lodged in the throat.

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October 29th, 2010 Tags: Cadmium, food, octopus, poisioning, pollution, South Korea, toxins
by Jennifer Welsh in Diseases, Injuries, & Other Ailments, Food, Nutrition, & More Food, Pollution Solutions (& Disasters), The Ocean & All Its (Endangered) Wonders, The Wide (& Strange) World of Animals | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

Tool-Using Octopus: Coconut Shells Become Body Armor

We should probably stop being amazed at the things octopuses can do and just accept that they’re just unfathomably cool (pun fully intended). Case in point: The veined octopus totes around coconut shells that it then hides in. Check out the footage, courtesy of Australia’s Museum Victoria:

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December 14th, 2009 Tags: Ocean, octopus
by Brett Israel in The Ocean & All Its (Endangered) Wonders | 6 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

Weekly Science Blog Roundup

Yee-haw! It’s the blog roundup.• Ever wanted to scratch-n-sniff Michael Phelps? The current issue of People features a special “Sexy Scents” section with “scratch-n-sniff” photos of hunky men and their preferred odors. (Is it chlorine?)

• One of the two orb weaver spiders on the International Space Station escaped, briefly. Now it’s back and weaving webs of confusion in zero-gravity.

• Amateur astronomers are keeping an eye on the tool bag that was lost during a recent space walk. They say it’s about as bright as the planet Neptune.

• Keystroke like a pro with free Gmail keyboard shortcut stickers! Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to them via old-fashioned snailmail.

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December 5th, 2008 Tags: men, octopus, spiders
by Nina Bai in Blog Roundup, Technology Attacks!, The Ocean & All Its (Endangered) Wonders | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >





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      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

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