#Soy #sauce may be able to #revive a #dull #dish, but it hardly has the #ability #bring #dead things back to life. The cephalopod's body lifts up and writhes in the bowl, prompting viewers to ask: Is it #really #dead?
Indeed, the #cuttlefish in the video -- part of a #seafood dish named odori-don -- is #no #longer #living. The #cuisine, sometimes prepared with #squid and known as the "dancing squid rice bowl," rose to prominence after Japanese sushi restaurant Ikkatei Tabiji began preparing the plate in this particular fashion, according to CBS News.
So how does the squid "come back to life?" The reaction is an automatic response to the sodium chloride, or salt, in the soy sauce. The recently deceased squid may lack a brain, but its muscle cells, which receive electrical commands, are still intact, NPR reports. "Most of the tissue in an organism that's recently dead, recently killed, is actually still alive" Charles Grisham, a chemistry professor at the University of Virginia, explained to Discovery News. "In this case, even though the brain function is missing, the tissues will still respond to stimuli." The squid's muscles still retain #Adenosine #triphosphate #(ATP), the main source of #energy for muscle contractions. Therefore, when the sodium in soy sauce is absorbed into the creature's body, it triggers muscle spasms that appear to make the cephalopod dance. Of course, a specimen must be fairly fresh for soy sauce to elicit this reaction, according to the report.
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