Stories by Katherine Harmon Courage

We all know that the male octopus uses his third right arm as a penis. (Oh, you didn’t? It’s true. Sometimes he even detaches it to give to the female.) In fact, all of the arms, if not so specialized, are easily identifiableas numbers one, two, three or four on the left or right side.

TULSA, Okla.–As the rate of unexplained drowning deaths has reportedly crept up in Oklahoma’s placid lakes, some observers have turned to an unusual explanation: a freshwater octopus.

The new impressively oblivious (or riotously self-mocking)logo that adorned a rocket carrying U.S. spy satellites is actually not a bad choice, as metaphors go.

Octopus suckers are extraordinary. They can move and grasp objects independently. They can “taste” the water around them. They can even form a seal on rough surfaces underwater.

We’ve known for centuries that octopuses get around one of two ways: one, by crawling over surfaces with their arms, or, two, swimming with the help of their siphon’s jet.

You have one brain. Which controls two jointed arms. And ten jointed fingers. All of which are going to have a very hard time keeping up with the protagonist in the new video game Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

The comedian Tracy Morgan is known for his outlandish sensibilities, caricatured by his character Tracy Jordan on the NBC show 30 Rock. Given his obvious penchant for the odd, perhaps it’s no surprise that he’s opted to own a pet octopus, which he featured in a tweet last year.

October 8 might be International Octopus Day, but October 31, 2013 is Octopus! day. My book Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea is publishing today.

Trees have rings, horses have teeth and even rocks have radiocarbon decay. But how can you tell an octopus’s age? This isn’t a frivolous question.

This time last year, one unlucky Seattle octopus was reportedly beaten to death by a local diver and then brought home to be eaten for dinner.

Ultrahigh-security systems similar to that in the movie Escape Plan are already keeping convicts behind bars

October 8 is International Octopus day (naturally)—and kicks off International Cephalopod Awareness Days. Perhaps I am a little biased, having written a book about them, but I think these animals deserve at least one day of celebration.

Smart, strong and flexible, the octopus is an enticing model for an entirely new kind of many-armed, multitalented robot

October 1 will be the first day millions of Americans will be able to start shopping for individual health insurance coverage in the new state-level exchanges.

Flu season is almost upon us, so millions of us are already rolling up our sleeves to get the annual shot. This jab is formulated to introduce our immune system to this year’s circulating strains of the virus so that it will remember how to make the specialized antibodies to fend it off the viral [...]

Fish farms now produce million tons of fish each year around the globe. But octopuses have largely escaped this kind of confined aquaculturing, despite a growing global demand and overfishing.

Octopuses live short, lonely lives. Even the big ones only see a few years. And that usually means only one shot at creating the next generation—and they don’t have time for parenting.

What is living in your gut? It might depend less on your diet, exercise habits, weight and sex than you think, according to new findings. Our health is tied to trillions of organisms that live in and on us.

The vanishing octopus is back. This stunning cephalopod, caught on video by Roger Hanlon, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, has been making the rounds online again.

The past couple posts have described some pretty severe experiments on octopuses, including: showing how octopus arms can grow back after inflicted damage and how even severed octopus arms can react to stimuli.

Most octopuses get around primarily by crawling along the seafloor. And if they need to get somewhere in a hurry, they can employ their funnels to jet away like their pelagic cousins, squid.

An octopus can slink through amazingly small spaces—often much to the chagrin of aquarium owners and zookeepers. These animals’ muscular, boneless bodies have just one hard part—a small beak.