Bizarre parasite alters fear, and shapes entire cultures


	Bizarre parasite alters fear, and shapes entire cultures

lordthor

4-3-2007 12:19 PM

581 views

tags:

fear, parasite

lordthor says:

This is un-fucking-believable.

7 Comments |

Add a Comment

4-3-2007 4:09 PM

Cielerella

Bugs rule the world and everyone in it :O

4-4-2007 4:34 AM

thisnamecantbetaken

Isn't that the sex kitten parasite, we've had a good laugh over? Yup!

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/E2D2D67C-2FE7-45DF-9C52-01920969187C/

4-4-2007 12:56 PM

thisnamecantbetaken

I think it is! It says Toxoplasma gondii in both clips! Ha ha! This is one little multi-talented bugger we're dealing with here! Ha ha!

4-4-2007 1:23 PM

thisnamecantbetaken

Yeah, I thought I recognized that cute little gondii face from somewhere.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6e5d6eb5-6633-438e-9573-5236e6cb6207/F1BE338F-D71A-46A2-93B6-A59E1BB0102E/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.livescience.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.livescience.com/img/100F5A86-C33F-4C49-9C9F-7DD5E464790B" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html"><P class="style1">Rats usually have an innate fear of cat urine. The fear extends to rodents that have never seen a feline and those generations removed from ever meeting a cat. After they get infected with the brain parasite <EM><A href="http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060210_technovelgy.html">Toxoplasma gondii</A></EM>, however, rats become attracted to cat pee, increasing the chance they'll become cat food.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html"><P class="style1">This much researchers knew. But a new study shows the parasite, which also infects more half the world's human population, seems to target a rat's fear of cat urine with almost surgical precision, leaving other kinds of fear alone.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html"><P class="style1">This discovery could shed light "on how <A href="http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051117_fear_factor.html">fear</A> is generated in the first place" and how people can potentially better manage phobias, researcher Ajai Vyas, a Stanford University neuroscientist, told <EM>LiveScience</EM>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070402_cat_urine.html">One study suggests the parasite has altered human behavior enough to <A href="http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060803_tgondii_culture.html">shape entire cultures</A>.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F1BE338F-D71A-46A2-93B6-A59E1BB0102E/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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