Amazing protozoan parasite (Science related)
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Amazing protozoan parasite (Science related)
Toxoplasma gondii -
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11516
If a parasite can alter a far more intelligent beings consciousness, imagine the possibilities! What if, instead of a parasite, there was some sort of synthetic substance that could be used against "enemies"? Torture would be obsolete. We could simply condition them not to hide the truth. Or, better yet, imagine if there were a way to alter human consciousness and intelligence entirely, rather than just conditioned response? What if we had a synthetic substance that expanded human consciousness, an organism that lives off a host but is not really alive so it doesnt feed off the host - a "reverse parasite" that actually increases your intelligence!
Sorry...I probably said too much there.
Its the nerd inside.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11516
If a parasite can alter a far more intelligent beings consciousness, imagine the possibilities! What if, instead of a parasite, there was some sort of synthetic substance that could be used against "enemies"? Torture would be obsolete. We could simply condition them not to hide the truth. Or, better yet, imagine if there were a way to alter human consciousness and intelligence entirely, rather than just conditioned response? What if we had a synthetic substance that expanded human consciousness, an organism that lives off a host but is not really alive so it doesnt feed off the host - a "reverse parasite" that actually increases your intelligence!
Sorry...I probably said too much there.
Its the nerd inside.
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 16,638
From: Parsippany, NJ
Originally Posted by senseiturtle
Could always just stick a banana in your favorite ear.
Link didn't work for me....Might just be this failure called Internet Explorer..
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^ here:
interesting and kinda creepy
A mere parasite controls the fate of rats and mice by hijacking the part of the brain that makes the rodents naturally fear cats, a new study shows.
Rats and mice normally flee if they smell cat urine, but not if they're infected by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite can only complete its life cycle if its rodent host is eaten by a cat, so it "brainwashes" the creature into apparently liking the scent.
Now Ajai Vyas and his colleagues at Stanford University in California, US, have revealed that the brainwashing is surgically precise. The parasites seem to reverse the rodent's innate fear by interfering with the amygdala, the seat of conditioned responses in the brain. Vyas's team looked at the distribution of the parasite in the brain of infected rats, and found it was almost twice as dense in the amygdala.
The exquisite precision leaves intact all other neurological mechanisms for learning to avoid danger, so the rodents learn to survive all hazards except being eaten by cats – the only form of death beneficial to the parasite.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608310104)
Rats and mice normally flee if they smell cat urine, but not if they're infected by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite can only complete its life cycle if its rodent host is eaten by a cat, so it "brainwashes" the creature into apparently liking the scent.
Now Ajai Vyas and his colleagues at Stanford University in California, US, have revealed that the brainwashing is surgically precise. The parasites seem to reverse the rodent's innate fear by interfering with the amygdala, the seat of conditioned responses in the brain. Vyas's team looked at the distribution of the parasite in the brain of infected rats, and found it was almost twice as dense in the amygdala.
The exquisite precision leaves intact all other neurological mechanisms for learning to avoid danger, so the rodents learn to survive all hazards except being eaten by cats – the only form of death beneficial to the parasite.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608310104)
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Although I found Toxoplasma gondii very interesting because it infects "higher" species, these parasites are actually not as uncommon as some of you might think. I know of another one that gets inside grasshoppers and grows to its full length in the cavity of the body pushing all of the organs out of the way. When it gets to its full length it makes the grasshopper so thirsty that it drowns itself and the parasite bursts out of the body into the water.
Are you feeling adventurous? Heres a vid of one emerging:
http://www.digyourowngrave.com/hairw...d-grasshopper/
Are you feeling adventurous? Heres a vid of one emerging:
http://www.digyourowngrave.com/hairw...d-grasshopper/
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Originally Posted by CarbonXe
Holy crap, that thing is huge!
Another one, as I recall, gets into an ants "brain" and controls the ant. Rather than hiding from larger animals, it forces the ant to climb a plant, like a large stalk of grass, and then the ant clamps its mandibles down and just hangs there until the animal the parasite really wants eats the blade of grass with the ant on it.
I dont remember if it was trying to get into sheep or cows or what. But that was the first step for its lifecycle. The rest of its maturity takes place in the larger animal after the ant is essentially digested. The process starts over when the larger animal defecates and its young get ingested by the ant (or some other insect) again.
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