Princeton evolutionary neuroscientist Yan Wang says that once a female octopus lays her eggs, most of her nervous system shuts down. Two optic glands between her eyes stay active and trigger chemicals, including steroids and insulin. Wang says those chemicals let the mother stay alive without eating. She compares the glands to a bassoon playing a solo while the rest of the orchestra falls quiet.
“These are like two really tiny, they're kind of the size of, you know, a grain of rice.” Yan Wang · at 21:46 — open in the transcript →
Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Radiolab (2026-10-23). Read the whole episode summary →