I'm so used to calling computers, phones, and all sorts of other devices "electronics" that I tend to forget that word means something very specific. It means those toys are manipulating the flow of electrons--everyone's favorite itty-bitty negatively charged particles.

That's particularly notable in contrast to biological systems, like you and me. Of course, our bodies are constantly manipulating all kinds of things, from lipids and proteins to vitamins and minerals, but when you get down to the really small stuff, we tend to rely on protons and ions.

To be specific, the Humboldt squid are back in California. Their opening act was a mass stranding on Black's Beach in San Diego last Saturday. A lifeguard had the most poetic commentary on the matter:

"Of course, as you might imagine, there were some odors associated with that," he said. "The only thing left on the beach right now is the scent of dead squid and seagull footprints."

As usual, everyone seems to be afflicted with amnesia regarding the regularity of such strandings over the past decade.

A hot new study in Nature has rearranged the molluscan family tree--with some surprising results!

No one can deny that cephalopods (squids, octos, and cuttles) are the brains of the family, with their cousins the gastropods (slugs and snails) coming in a close second. We'd all assumed that these two groups were closely related, with cephalopods evolving from a gastropod-like ancestor, refining a brain that already existed.

However! As summarized in the New Scientist:

Octopoteuthis is a curious animal. As the name suggests, it's a squid that looks like an octopus. Babies have eight arms and two tentacles, but they lose the tentacles as they grow up--becoming the only adult squid with eight appendages.

They have other intriguing features as well. We tend to think of squid as relatively sociable animals traveling in schools or shoals, but Octopoteuthis lives a solitary life in the deep sea, rarely coming across another member of the same species.