Teach me something new today

[jon-nyc]

Grok:

Did you know that octopuses have a remarkable ability called "chromatophores" that allows them to change color and blend into their surroundings? These specialized skin cells contain pigments and can expand or contract to create intricate patterns, helping them camouflage against predators or even communicate with other octopuses. Scientists have observed them mimicking everything from coral to rocks to other sea creatures. Pretty cool, right? Want to know more about how they pull off this underwater magic trick?

ChatGPT:

Alright, here’s something you might not know: Octopuses have three hearts—and two of them stop when they swim.

Here’s how it works:
• An octopus has one main heart (called the systemic heart) that pumps blood around its body.
• It also has two branchial hearts, each one dedicated to pumping blood through one of the octopus’s two gills to get oxygen.

But here’s the wild part:
• When an octopus swims, the main heart keeps working, but the two branchial hearts stop.
• That means swimming is exhausting for them—they prefer crawling along the sea floor, which is much less taxing.

Bonus twist: their blood is blue, not red—because it’s copper-based (hemocyanin), not iron-based like ours.

Nature is full of weird design choices, and this one’s both smart and strange.

Want to go deeper into marine biology or switch to something else—like a historical oddity or a space fact?

Claude:

I'd be happy to teach you something new today! Here's a fascinating fact about corvids (crows, ravens, jays, and their relatives) that many people don't know:
Corvids can recognize and remember human faces for years. In a remarkable study conducted at the University of Washington, researchers wore masks while capturing and banding wild American crows. When the researchers later walked around campus wearing those same masks, the crows would mob and scold them aggressively - even crows that weren't directly involved in the original capture.
What's even more impressive is that this knowledge spread through crow communities. Other crows who never experienced the "dangerous" masked humans firsthand learned to recognize and react to them through social learning. The crows maintained this facial recognition for at least 2.7 years in the study, but researchers believe they likely remember much longer.
This demonstrates not only remarkable facial recognition abilities but also evidence of cultural transmission of knowledge among crows - they essentially teach each other who might be dangerous.
Would you like to hear more about corvid intelligence, or would you prefer to learn about something entirely different?