How to Be a Soft Creature in a Stressful Situation
It's not your fault you're crabby
Hi friends!
I hope you’re all surviving the anxiety of this season. Stress can make anyone’s outlook on the world less rosy—including nonhumans, as you’ll see below.
I’ve been focusing on some fun little writing projects, making Halloween costumes for my kids, and continuing to paint one fall leaf for every day of October. Am I getting better at watercolor? Are neighbors starting to know me as that lady who walks around picking up maple leaves and muttering “Why so many points, guys?” Hard to say.
What I’ve Been Writing
…Still not my book. Though I’ve heard from my editor that she’s almost done with notes for me, hooray!
In the meantime, I wrote this piece for the NYT: Sperm Can’t Unlock an Egg Without This Ancient Molecular Key I was a little nervous about doing a molecular biology story, but it ended up being a good stretch for my brain muscles.* And none of my sources emailed me after publication to tell me I’d screwed up the science, hooray again!
A throwback: After I chose the paper that would inspire this newsletter, I realized the senior author is someone I’ve spoken to for two stories in the past. If you’re interested in hearing more from her, those pieces are:
The Search for a Model Octopus That Won’t Die After Laying Its Eggs (This one has amazing pictures. I’ve only reported with a photographer a couple of times, but it’s such a treat.)
Octopuses Don’t Have Backbones—Or Rights Hard to stand up for yourself when you’re squishy, am I right?
*Neuroscience, like molecular biology, is slightly outside my wheelhouse, but yes I do know brains don’t have muscles.
Dear Inkfish
Everything is stressing me out right now: personal life, work, the world. Social media is just people I know tangentially shouting at each other about political topics that make me panic. When I leave the house for a walk, the unseasonably beautiful weather makes me think about climate change. I’m in a bad mood all the time. How can I exist in stressful times without becoming a jerk to my family and friends?
—A Crab
Dear Crab,
You’re not alone. All kinds of animals living under stressful conditions become grouchy. Researchers have used this tendency to study animal welfare: for example, pessimistic pigs or cows might suggest that a farm’s living conditions need improvement.
One recent study even found that stress can cause a bad attitude in an invertebrate. Namely, a cuttlefish.
Cuttlefish are cephalopods, like an octopus or squid. Researchers asked whether a species called the stumpy-spined cuttlefish gets into a bad mood when its life is stressful.
For cephalopods, stress doesn’t come from reading the news or going for a walk (no legs). Instead, the scientists gently stressed cuttlefish in their lab by doing two annoying things. First, they took away all the items that made the cuttlefish tanks pleasant and homey: sand, artificial plants, hiding places. They left each animal in a bare tub for a few days.
Then an experimenter started chasing the cuttlefish around their bare tubs with a net and briefly capturing them. This happened for a few minutes twice a day, three days in a row.
After this stressful period, the researchers gave their cuttlefish a test. They also tested other cuttlefish that they hadn’t been harassing.
All the cephalopods had previously been taught to associate stripes with snacks. Half the cuttlefish were trained with vertical stripes, and the other half with horizontal. When the cuttlefish entered a box and saw two signs—one horizontally striped and the other vertically—they knew which side of the box held a tasty shrimp.
In the experiment at the end of the very annoying week, the researchers again put their trained cuttlefish into boxes with two striped signs. This time, one of the signs had diagonal stripes, which the animals hadn’t seen before. Would they guess that this ambiguous sign pointed to food? Or would they assume it didn’t?
The stressed cuttlefish seemed more pessimistic. Compared to unstressed animals, they were less likely to investigate the ambiguous sign. It was as if they were thinking, Nothing good has happened this week; why would this be any different? But the cuttlefish who’d had a better week were willing to check out the diagonal stripes. Might be a shrimp here. Why not?
What’s the takeaway for those of us with backbones?
It’s natural to feel bad when things are bad. This tendency is in your bones (or not bones). It’s normal, as you’re being chased around your empty tank, to wish everyone would leave you alone and maybe give you a nice shell to crawl inside.
On the other hand/arm/tentacle, the bad times can make your brain interpret everything badly, even signs that are truly neutral. For now, you can do your best with your friends and family while trying not to believe everything your stressed brain is telling you. And maybe add some nice plants to your tank.
(Did you scroll this far? If so, here’s a relevant video from one of my household’s favorite musical artists. Please enjoy, and take care of yourself.)