this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025

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Science

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The entire body of a sea urchin is what researchers are now calling an “all-body brain,” with neurons that function as a brain throughout its anatomy. (www.popularmechanics.com)

submitted 4 months ago by cm0002 to c/science@mander.xyz

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[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 30 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So, when I see chefs open one up and eat it raw, they're eating living brains?

Metal.

[–] seanom@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago (3 children)

They are eating the roe. So genitals, eggs, and sperm.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 4 months ago

Kinky

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

And it's delicious with a quail egg dropped on top. Yummo!

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

mmm... brainitalia...

[–] henfredemars 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)

These guys always made me feel uncomfortable. I would collect and eat them, and the remains would run away afterward.

[–] cm0002 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Er...I...um...what‽

[–] henfredemars 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s true! I would collect them in a pail from the tidal pools as a child. I would crack them open with whatever I had available and eat them, and the halves would still be running around on the ground after I discarded the rest.

The parts of urchin, the remains, they would skitter around and bunch up in one corner of the yard trying to get away like they didn’t realize they’d been eaten yet even though there was nothing left inside.

[–] cm0002 13 points 4 months ago

I have....so many questions...

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Could you do me a favor? Since you know what you're looking for, will you see if you can find any videos of this? I looked, but either my keywords are bad, or there just aren't any. I'm assuming it's bad keywords. That's absolutely wild.

[–] henfredemars 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I tried. This isn't a very good video, but you can kinda see it's still trying to crawl away after it's been eaten at several points. I might have had 20 or so in a pile fresh out of the water and they were much more active. I hope this helps.

I like the fat ones. The long ones don't taste good.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 months ago

I am deeply, deeply disturbed by this. Thank you for sharing!

[–] spinne@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 months ago

Most unnerving meal I've ever heard of

[–] AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

I, for one, would like to see the cafeteria menus in advance so parents can adjust their dinner menus accordingly. I don't like the idea of my children having two all-body brain meals in one day.

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Fedi-urchin

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 3 points 4 months ago

Urchins are like the God-emperor in Dune, understood.

[+] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Depends on your definition of thinking. If by think you mean react to their environment and possibly have some form of chemically based memory, that seems possible. Hell they have to react to the environment to maintain homeostasis. Multicellular organisms are ultimately a kind of colony of unicellular organisms if you get right down to it.

If you mean actual cognition, definitely not. There's an indisputable difference between reacting to stimulus and considering the cause of the stimulus and the second one needs a neutral network or something like it, it's simply too complex... Probably.

I also don't think it's unreasonable that an organ could affect thought patterns aka personalities, but there's a big, big difference between your brain's specific chemical environment they are affecting and the memories it contains.

[–] Dogyote@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 months ago

Oh, so just like me.

[–] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

So they are basically an intellect devourer with spines?

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is such a shit magazine. They are not "all brain", its more like their brain is just scattered evenly throughout their body.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 4 months ago

its called a nerve net for the most part. they dont have an actual brain per ce. thier nervous system is somewhat more complex than cnidarians.