US News&World Report has a nifty writeup from the NSF about research on Humboldt squid, featuring my PhD advisor and various collaborators. Both the title and the subtitle make me laugh:
Exploring How Jumbo Squid Use Oxygen to Survive
Research could explain how ocean ecosystems work
The title just sounds boring, because, c'mon, don't we all use oxygen to survive? (Except obligate anaerobes.) And the subtitle is just meaninglessly all-encompassing. Research could explain how thingwork? Really?
But I feel for the editors, trying to come up with headlines, because the article itself is pretty all-encompassing. The researchers comment on everything from medical applications to climate change. Gilly says,
My background is in neurobiology and electrophysiology, so of course I think that the mechanisms involved in hypoxia tolerance of squid could have relevance to humans, and I would like to take the squid-in-lab experiments exactly in that direction.
A fascinating, if somewhat cryptic, comment. And, of course, the myth of the red devil must be perpetuated at all costs.
Mexican fishermen call them diablos rojos, or “red devils,’’ because they are extremely aggressive.
Old NID
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