MBL Scientists are Front and Center for "Cephalopod Week"

MBL's Bret Grasse, second from right, on a cephalopod expert panel at ScienceFriday's "Cephalopod Movie Night" last week at WBUR Cityspace in Boston. Credit: ScienceFriday

celebrated its many-tentacled "" from June 10-16, and MBL octopus and squid experts were there to represent!

Kicking it off by appearing on the popular radio show were MBL Hibbitt Fellow Carrie Albertin and Grass Fellow . Based on her recent scientific publications, Albertin described the “the strange, scrambled genomes of squids and octopuses” and Wang delved into her studies on the dramatic death of female octopuses after laying their eggs. You can

Then, Bret Grasse, MBL’s manager of cephalopod operations, rounded up his team for a multi-dimensional appearance on “” at WBUR’s Cityspace in Boston. Grasse sat on a panel of cephalopod experts onstage, while MBL’s Taylor Sakmar provided a 7-minute virtual tour of the MBL’s cephalopod species on the big screen. Miranda Vogt* and a team of interns were responsible for the safe transport of two octopuses from MBL to the event, where they thrilled the audience, and Vogt also fielded questions on what it’s like to be a cephalopod caretaker. All in all, said Grasse, “it was a resounding success!”

Panel onstage at Cephalopod Movie Night in Boston, June 2022. Credit: SciFri
The expert panel at "Cephalopod Movie Night" included, from left, Owen Nichols (Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown), Anik Grearson (Northeastern University; former MBL intern); Bret Grasse (Marine Biological Laboratory) and Diana Montano, ScienceFriday. Credit: SciFri
MBL's Taylor Sakmar provides a video tour of MBL's Cephalopod Mariculture facility at ScienceFriday's "Cephalopod Movie Night
MBL's Taylor Sakmar provides a video tour of MBL's Cephalopod Mariculture facility at ScienceFriday's "Cephalopod Movie Night," June 15 in Boston. Credit: SciFri

*Updated June 21, 2022: Miranda Vogt's last name was originally misspelled "Voigt"