Page 20 - The Jewish Voice - June '24

Page 20, The Jewish Voice

arts & EntErtainmEnt

Book Review fact that an octopus has three hearts, blue blood and the various corals, rocks, sea grass, etc. – 100 times a minute,
equivalent of nine brains – each of its eight tentacles can
faster than a human can blink, in order to camouflage
Secrets of the Octopus think for itself – is only the beginning of what makes this itself to hide from a predator … even though the octopus’s
alien-like creature so fascinating. Moreover, if a tentacle eyes are actually color blind! It is the octopus’s skin that
By Nils A. Shapiro is lost it can grow back in two to four months. And from senses the background’s colors and textures!
It seems to me that after author Montgomery’s own and others’ experiences we Officials at aquariums have learned that octopuses get
300 million years of their learn that these highly intelligent octopuses are as curious bored very quickly and must be kept mentally challenged.
life on this planet, one about us humans as we are about them. For example, it takes them only minutes to learn how to
of the most extraordinary Here are just a few examples of the hundreds of open a childproof cap on a prescription medication – press
creatures to have ever remarkable facts you will discover in the pages of this down, then turn – or a jar that holds a tempting treat, like
existed is today, more than book (some text has been omitted for lack of space and a shrimp: unscrew the metal top by turning it counter-
ever, the focus of human been replaced by ellipses). clockwise. The answer is to provide different kinds of
attention. There are several “Boneless, venomous, and equipped with eight puzzles regularly, all year round.
reasons for such current powerful suckered arms (a single large sucker on the Octopuses can distinguish between different human
interest. One reason is largest species, the giant Pacific, can lift 35 pounds – faces and will bond with individual humans. I can
that – thanks to decades and there are 200 on each arm), octopuses are gifted personally attest to that. When my review of The Soul of
of research by marine with talents that seem so otherworldly you’d have to an Octopus was published some years ago in this column,
scientists – we now go to outer space or science fiction to match them … author Sy Montgomery (whom I had never met) called to
have more knowledge Octopuses can taste with every inch of their skin. They thank me and asked if I would like to meet Sy, the octopus
about octopuses’ can squirt ink … as a smokescreen … They can drool a at the New England Aquarium in Boston that had been
remarkable intelligence muscle-dissolving acid and a neurotoxic venom … But the named after her. But, she cautioned, the octopus had laid
and incredible range octopus’s hallucinatory ability to change color and shape her 100,000 eggs and, as I would know from having read
of abilities, several of is its signature superpower – one it can deploy faster than her book, since there are many predators in their natural
which are described a human can blink an eye!” ocean habitat female octopuses instinctively spread their
later in this review. An octopus can change its colors and overall skin tentacles atop the eggs, stop foraging for their own food,
A book written by Sy patterns to match any background it may be next to – and over a period of several months slowly starve to death
Montgomery, The Soul to protect the babies.
of an Octopus, which I We met at the aquarium the following week. Sy
highly recommended in Montgomery had visited this octopus numerous times as
an earlier review, quickly part of the research for her book. As soon as Sy the author
climbed the bestseller stepped to the top of the tank, the octopus looked up and,
lists in 25 countries as weak as she was from not eating, she raised a tentacle,
around the world. wrapped it around the author’s waist in greeting and kept
That book inspired a 27-year-old New Yorker, Warren it there.
K. Carlyle – who had been fascinated by octopuses since After a while, Sy the author gently uncoiled the
he was a young boy – to launch in 2015 an online octopus tentacle, turned to me and said, “It’s your turn, Nils.”
fan club and educational organization named OctoNation. I stepped up to the tank and was handed a small fish, a
Today, that club numbers more than a million members capelin – the octopus’s favorite food. A tentacle arose,
worldwide. Carlyle has also written for this new book, took it from my fingers … but dropped it into the water.
Secrets of the Octopus, the informative and beautifully She was already too weak to eat and was starving.
illustrated OctoProfiles of 16 different octopus and
cuttlefish species that follow the book’s major text. Arts & Entertainment on page 22
To meet the demands of this worldwide attention, the
National Geographic Society has produced a television
series, Secrets of the Octopus, which on April 21 began
streaming on the Hulu and Disney channels. They wisely Experience Dentistry
turned to the author of the earlier book, Sy Montgomery,
to write a new companion volume for their TV series.
An interesting foreword has been added by Alex Schnell,
Ph.D., an Australian wildlife scientist and research
associate at the University of Cambridge. with a
While this gorgeous new volume, Secrets of the
Octopus, is different from Montgomery’s earlier The
Soul of an Octopus in important ways, each offers its
own special pleasures. Since this column is a review of
the new book, I will focus on that one here.
The most obvious difference is that it takes advantage Woman’s Touch
of the National Geographic Society’s staff of explorer-
photographers to include more than 60 stunning full-page
and double-spread color photos of octopuses in their
natural habitats. There are more than 300 different species
worldwide, ranging in size from tentacle spreads of 2 Cosmetic & Comprehensive Restorative Dentistry
inches to 16 feet!
Octopuses are technically members of the mollusk
family, which also includes scallops, oysters, clams State of the Art & Same Day Restorations
and snails. But at some point during their evolution
octopuses lost their shells and, like squid and cuttlefish,
are gelatinous – meaning they have no bones, which is Nitrous Oxide/Oxygen Sedation Available
how an octopus that has a tentacle spread of as much as 16
feet can escape from its tank in an aquarium by squeezing
through a hole as small as 2 inches round!
Octopuses are also cephalopods – their eight legs Joanne Green, D.D.S.
(tentacles) are attached to their heads, rather than to a
torso, as in the case of humans and most creatures. The
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