mysterious, and absurdly intelligent creatures on this planet.

神祕而又荒誕的智慧生物在這個星球上。

They can change color. They can change shape and texture. They strategize, play, and solve

它們可以改變顏色。他們可以改變形狀和質地。他們會制定戰略、玩耍和解決

puzzles. They've got three hearts, their skin can see, their blood is blue, their magic

謎題。他們有三顆心，他們的皮膚可以看到，他們的血液是藍色的，他們的魔法。

trick is disappearing, and over half of their brain is not in their head. Instead, it's

伎倆正在消失，他們一半以上的大腦不在腦中。相反，它是

in these things. No, they're not tentacles. They're arms!

在這些東西。不，他們不是觸手。它們是手臂！

And because they're some of the most fascinating arms in the animal kingdom, today, we're

因為它們是動物王國中最迷人的武器，今天，我們要介紹的是

gonna wrestle with those.

會與這些摔跤。

So, first, a quick taxonomic rundown. In the

所以，先來個快速的分類概述。在

cephalopoda class, you've got squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish. Cephalopod literally means

頭足類，你有烏賊，章魚，墨魚。頭足類的字面意思是

“head foot” in Greek, and I mean, it kinda works.

"頭腳 "在希臘語中，我的意思是，它有點工作。

Octopuses are a bit different from other cephalopods: squid and cuttlefish actually do have tentacles.

章魚與其他頭足類動物有些不同：烏賊和墨魚其實是有觸角的。

Two of those bad boys, specifically, which they use for hunting. Tentacles are often

其中有兩個壞小子，專門用來打獵的。觸手往往是

longer and kinda slimy, with suckers or hooks at their tips.

較長，有點粘稠，頂端有吸盤或鉤子。

All those other lanky limbs are arms, used for grappling, grasping, galloping, and generally

其他那些粗壯的四肢都是手臂，用於抓取，抓取，奔跑，以及一般的

getting up to mischief. The first thing it's important to know about

搞起了惡作劇。首先要知道的是......。

octopus arms is that they can think on their own. While that might not sound too surprising

章魚臂是，它們可以自己思考。雖然這聽起來可能並不太令人驚訝

when it comes to the third-right arm that, incidentally, functions like a penis, it's

說到右三臂，順便說一下，功能像陰莖，它是... ...

a complete departure from how most animals that we consider “intelligent” operate.

與我們認為 "聰明 "的大多數動物的運作方式完全不同。

Look at your hand. Before you pick up a snack, you think about it. And then your hangry brain

看看你的手。在你拿起零食之前，你會想一想。然後你那飢腸轆轆的大腦

sends messages through your spinal cord to your hand, and your fingertips use their few

通過你的脊髓向你的手發送信息，而你的指尖則用它們的幾個

hundred mechanical receptors to achieve the task.

百個機械受體來實現任務。

Now, if you were an octopus, your fingers would first find the snack, sniff it, decide

如果你是章魚，你的手指會先找到零食，聞一聞，再決定是否要吃

if it's worth your time, and grab ahold of it, and then, maybe, be kind enough to inform

如果它值得你的時間，並抓住它，然後，也許，是好心告知

your brain about the entire thing. Well, the rest of your brain, that is.

你的大腦對整個事情。嗯，你的大腦的其餘部分，這是。

See, about two thirds of what we call an octopus's “brain,” or its neurons at least, are

你看，我們所說的章魚的 "大腦"，或者說它的神經元，大約有三分之二都是

located in its eight arms. For them, this means “thinking” is a full-body experience.

位於其八條手臂中。對他們來說，這意味著 "思考 "是一種全身的體驗。

Compared to those few hundred mechanical receptors in your fingertip, each sucker on an octopus

與你指尖的幾百個機械感受器相比，章魚上的每一個吸盤

has tens of thousands of both chemical and mechanical receptors. This means that

擁有數以萬計的化學和機械受體。這意味著

they can essentially taste an object as well as feel its texture and weight, and decide

他們基本上可以嚐到一個物體的味道，也能感覺到它的質地和重量，並決定。

what to do with it without waiting for a command from the central brain.

不用等中樞大腦的指令，就能知道該怎麼做。

While the amount varies, the average number of suckers on each arm is over two hundred.

雖然數量不一，但平均每條手臂上的吸盤數量都在兩百個以上。

So, do a little math and that's hundreds of millions of sensory cells to explore the world.

所以，算一算，那就是幾億個感覺細胞來探索世界。

That's a lot of information! Each sucker is made of two regions: the disk-like

這信息量可真大啊!每個吸盤都是由兩個區域組成的：盤狀的...

part you can see is the infundibulum, while the center cavity is called the acetabulum.

你可以看到的部分是下頜骨，而中心腔被稱為髖臼。

When an octopus reaches for something, the infundibulum will flatten to feel the surface first.

當章魚伸手去拿東西的時候，下頜骨會先放平摸到表面。

The octopus uses its sucker's acetabulum to attach to the object,

章魚用它的吸盤的髖臼附著在物體上。

with a combination of radial and

結合徑向和

meridional muscles and tiny hairs that maintain the connection like velcro.

經絡肌肉和細小的毛髮，像魔術貼一樣維持著連接。

This makes the animal's grip so strong that the largest suckers out there can lift about

這使得動物的抓地力很強，最大的吸盤能舉起約1.

one Dolores worth of weight… each. And oh, um, did I mention their arms can regenerate, too?

每個人... 都有一個Dolores的價值。哦，嗯，我有沒有提到他們的手臂也能再生？

With all of their incredible abilities, humans

人類擁有不可思議的能力

are looking to octopuses to not only better understand intelligence and consciousness,

正在尋找章魚，不僅可以更好地瞭解智力和意識。

but to inspire innovations in materials science, medicine, and especially, soft robotics.

但要激發材料科學、醫學，特別是軟機器人技術的創新。

There's so many challenging questions in the engineering side that we don't know the answers.

工程方面有很多挑戰性的問題，我們不知道答案。

Nature has already figured it out. So, in particular, regarding octopus, they've

大自然已經想好了。所以，特別是關於章魚，它們已經...

got eight arms, of course. Think about each of these arms have technically infinite

當然，有八條手臂。想一想這些手臂在技術上都是無限的。

degrees of freedom. And controlling even a single arm with so many degrees of freedom

自由度。而控制哪怕是一隻手臂，也有這麼多的自由度。

is a very challenging task for us as engineers. That's why Hamid and his team are working

對我們工程師來說，是一項非常具有挑戰性的任務。這就是為什麼哈米德和他的團隊正在努力工作

on developing robots made of hydrogel, which mimic the structure of an octopus' arm.

關於開發由水凝膠製成的機器人，它模仿章魚的手臂結構。

The interesting thing about hydrogel is you can make it so that it responds to light,

關於水凝膠的有趣之處在於，你可以讓它對光做出反應。

mechanical, electrical and chemical stimulation, just like an octopus. And then what

機械、電和化學刺激，就像章魚一樣。 然後呢

we proposed was to 3D print the entire structure using hydrogel, in one shot, with embedded

我們提出的建議是使用水凝膠3D打印整個結構，一次完成，並嵌入了大量的水凝膠。

neurons made of silver.

銀製的神經元。

If they're successful, this octo-bot could make huge strides in fields from manufacturing

如果他們成功了，這個八角機器人可以在製造等領域取得巨大進步。

to medicine. Think sensitive, flexible machines that could assist with assembly or surgery.

到醫學。想想敏感、靈活的機器，可以協助裝配或手術。

So, let's take care of our oceans today to make sure they're healthy for generations

所以，讓我們今天就來愛護我們的海洋，確保它們世代健康成長

to come. Because with so many incredible, strange creatures with such amazing capabilities,

來的。因為有了這麼多不可思議的、能力如此驚人的奇異生物。

who knows where the mysteries of the deep will take us next?

誰知道下一步深海的奧祕會把我們帶到哪裡？

Thanks for joining us for this first season of Tusks to Tails. Keep coming back to Seeker

謝謝你加入我們第一季的《牙牙學語》。請繼續關注 "探索者"。

for all your science deep-dives, and we'll see you next time!

為你所有的科學深潛，我們下次再見!