A Deautiful mind

摘要

Betty the octopus is curled up in her den, eyes half-closed and clutching a piece of red Lego like a child with a teddy bear. She is, says Kerry Perkins, cephalopod researcher at the Sea Life aquarium in Brighton, UK, much better behaved than some of the octopuses she has worked with. One used to short-circuit a light in its tank by squirting water at it, and would do so whenever the bulb was left on at night. Another made a bid for freedom via the aquarium drainage system, which it seemed to know headed straight out to sea. "Any octopus tank worth itssalthasa way of stopping the octopus from escaping," Perkins says as she adds two weights to the lid of Betty's tank. "They love to explore."