Jigsaw puzzle by Nina Torr
Buy online
Brainy Cephalopods
i
The 54th plate from Ernst Haeckel's ''Kunstformen der Natur'' (1904), depicting organisms classified as Gamochonia (public domain)
Science

Brainy Cephalopods

Mikołaj Golachowski
Reading
time 2 minutes
Mikołaj Golachowski:
a polar explorer with a PhD in natural sciences, who spends four months every year in Antarctica and in the Arctic. Mikołaj writes about nature for both children and adults. His latest books are “Czochralem antarktycznego słonia” [I’ve Ruffled an Antarctic Elephant] (Marginesy, 2016) and “Gęby, dzioby i nochale” [Gobs, Beaks and Schnozzes] (Babaryba, 2016).

Among all the phenomena that humans can experience, an encounter with a cephalopod is the closest thing to making contact with an extra-terrestrial civilization.

Planet Earth is inhabited by many intelligent creatures. The vast majority of them are vertebrates; the last common ancestor of such creatures as humans, dolphins, cats, crows, large parrots and monitor lizards lived some 300 million years ago. It lived on land and already had a fairly well-developed nervous system.

Information

You’ve reached your free article’s limit this month. You can get unlimited access to all our articles and audio content with our digital subscription. If you have an active subscription, please log in.

Subscribe
Mikołaj Golachowski:
a polar explorer with a PhD in natural sciences, who spends four months every year in Antarctica and in the Arctic. Mikołaj writes about nature for both children and adults. His latest books are “Czochralem antarktycznego słonia” [I’ve Ruffled an Antarctic Elephant] (Marginesy, 2016) and “Gęby, dzioby i nochale” [Gobs, Beaks and Schnozzes] (Babaryba, 2016).
Translation: Annie Krasińska
Publish date: 17.06.2019

Also read:

Colourful Caterpillars
i
Maria Sibylla Merian – Caiman crocodilus with a snake
Art

Colourful Caterpillars

How Maria Sibylla Merian Embraced Art and Science
Agnieszka Drotkiewicz
Agnieszka Drotkiewicz:

is a writer. She has published several novels (“Paris London Dachau”, “Dla mnie to samo”, “Teraz”, “Nieszpory”) and collected interviews (two conducted along with Anna Dziewit: “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” and “Teoria trutnia i inne”; and two by herself: “Jeszcze dzisiaj nie usiadłam” and “Piano rysuje sufit”). Agnieszka also published “Dusza światowa” – an extended interview with Dorota Masłowska. Together with Ewa Kuryluk, she wrote a book in the form of a conversation (“Manhattan i Mała Wenecja”), for which they received the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award.

A gifted painter; a resourceful mother who left an unsuccessful marriage and raised her daughters on her own; a scholar who at the age of 53, 100 years before Darwin, travelled to the end of the world and proved that what Aristotle wrote about the life of insects was absolute nonsense.

The year is 1700, Suriname, South America. The lush green of manioc fields, the exuberant vegetation, the fruits of bright colours and intense tastes. It’s hot and humid. The Surinamese rainforest – allied with its mysterious universe of insects, with its thick scramble of trees and bushes – guards most of these Dutch territories like a strong fortification. Anyone who wanders into the middle of this forest risks getting caught in an inescapable trap.

Continue reading