Entries Tagged "squid"

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Friday Squid Blogging: New Squid Species

An ancient squid:

New research on fossils has revealed that a vampire-like ancient squid haunted Earth’s oceans 165 million years ago. The study, published in June edition of the journal Papers in Palaeontology, says the creature had a bullet-shaped body with luminous organs, eight arms and sucker attachments. The discovery was made by scientists in France, who used modern imaging technique to analyse the previously discovered fossils. The ancient squid has been named Vampyrofugiens atramentum, which stands for the “fleeing vampire”. The researchers said that these features have never been recorded before.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

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Posted on September 22, 2023 at 5:09 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: We’re Genetically Engineering Squid Now

Is this a good idea?

The transparent squid is a genetically altered version of the hummingbird bobtail squid, a species usually found in the tropical waters from Indonesia to China and Japan. It’s typically smaller than a thumb and shaped like a dumpling. And like other cephalopods, it has a relatively large and sophisticated brain.

The see-through version is made possible by a gene editing technology called CRISPR, which became popular nearly a decade ago.

Albertin and Rosenthal thought they might be able to use CRISPR to create a special squid for research. They focused on the hummingbird bobtail squid because it is small, a prodigious breeder, and thrives in lab aquariums, including one at the lab in Woods Hole.

Is this far behind?

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

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Posted on September 1, 2023 at 5:29 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: China’s Squid Fishing Ban Ineffective

China imposed a “pilot program banning fishing in parts of the south-west Atlantic Ocean from July to October, and parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from September to December.” However, the conservation group Oceana analyzed the data and figured out that the Chinese weren’t fishing in those areas in those months, anyway.

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blockquote>In the south-west Atlantic moratorium area, Oceana found there had been no fishing conducted by Chinese fleets in the same time period in 2019. Between 1,800 and 8,500 fishing hours were detected in the zone in each of the five years to 2019. In the eastern Pacific zone, China’s fishing fleet appeared to fish only 38 hours in the year before the ban’s introduction.

“Ending squid fishing in areas where there is no fishing does nothing to protect squid,” said Oceana’s campaign director, Max Valentine.

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blockquote>

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

Posted on August 25, 2023 at 5:06 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Brand Fish Sauce

Squid Brand is a Thai company that makes fish sauce:

It is part of Squid Brand’s range of “personalized healthy fish sauces” that cater to different consumer groups, which include the Mild Fish Sauce for Kids and Mild Fish Sauce for Silver Ages.

It also has a Vegan Fish Sauce.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

Posted on August 18, 2023 at 5:02 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: NIWA Annual Squid Survey

Results from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited annual squid survey:

This year, the team unearthed spectacular large hooked squids, weighing about 15kg and sitting at 2m long, a Taningia—­which has the largest known light organs in the animal kingdom­—and a few species that remain very rare in collections worldwide, such as the “scaled” squid Lepidoteuthis and the Batoteuthis skolops.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

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Posted on August 11, 2023 at 5:09 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Chromatophores

Neat:

Chromatophores are tiny color-changing cells in cephalopods. Watch them blink back and forth from purple to white on this squid’s skin in an Instagram video taken by Drew Chicone…

It’s completely hypnotic to watch these tiny cells flash with color. It’s as if the squid has a little sky full of twinkling stars on its skin. This has to be one of the coolest looking sea creatures I’ve seen.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

Posted on July 21, 2023 at 5:10 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.