Molluscs, mechanisms and minds.

The display of intelligence in other animals indicates that we might learn something about how our own nervous systems work, and how we learn and remember, from studying them. J.Z. Young's identification of the squid giant axon in the 1930s was the foundation of these studies. Archive film shows Young at work and explains how the size of these huge nerves enabled researchers to begin to study the chemical and electrical mechanisms of nerve action. This work is set in the context of biological mechanisms in species that are difficult to study directly. Some recent research on learning and memory is being conducted at Duke University Marine Laboratory, North Carolina and this sequence ends with memorable film of an octopus tackling a problem it has never encountered before.