WTF? Zombie Ants?

[Riz]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/aug/18/zombie-carpenter-ant-fungus">http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/ ... ant-fungus</a><!-- m -->

[Vanraw]

That is some cool shit. Nature finds a way.

The fungus infects the ant, forcing them to a position where they die and sprout more fungus and I guess explode spores out thier head that hit the floor and infect more ants.

[Slamz]

Amazing, really. I wonder what signal a fungus can possibly send to an ant that means "find the central part of a leaf and bite it, then stay there". Seems like an awfully specific instruction, especially considering it's something I would think the ant would not otherwise ever do.

Going under a leaf could possibly make sense if the fungus did something to make the ant sensitive to light (the ant is just trying to get away from light) but I don't get the latching on to the central vein.

[Vanraw]

yea me either. and that fact that they have found evidence of it existing millions of years ago.

I always enjoyed Sci fi books that defined an alien species as non-humanoid. Always bothered me that so many writers always put a head, 2 legs and 2 arms on aliens. The real deal will be some sort of insect of smart fungus that thinks and manipulates DNA like we learn to walk.

[Diggles]

yea me either. and that fact that they have found evidence of it existing millions of years ago.

I always enjoyed Sci fi books that defined an alien species as non-humanoid. Always bothered me that so many writers always put a head, 2 legs and 2 arms on aliens. The real deal will be some sort of insect of smart fungus that thinks and manipulates DNA like we learn to walk.

If they didnt, half the movie would be translation.

[Vanraw]

yea me either. and that fact that they have found evidence of it existing millions of years ago.

I always enjoyed Sci fi books that defined an alien species as non-humanoid. Always bothered me that so many writers always put a head, 2 legs and 2 arms on aliens. The real deal will be some sort of insect of smart fungus that thinks and manipulates DNA like we learn to walk.

If they didnt, half the movie would be translation.

[Vllad]

How entertaining would Alien have been if the monster was just a piece fungus?


Vllad

[Uncle Shags]

Something similar happens with fish.

There's a parasitic fluke that spends the 3 different portion of it's life cycle in three different animals: snails, fish and birds. The fish eats the snail, the bird eat the fish, the bird poops out the fluke which gets eaten by the snail.

They've discovered that the fluke gets into the fishes brain and makes it act crazy. The infected fish go to the surface of the water and flash around, making them more likely to get eaten by birds, which ensures the fluke catches the express bus to his next stop.

Pretty nutty.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19129105">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19129105</a><!-- m -->

[Riz]

Still, think this way. We are just now beginning to understand a tiny fraction of how a brain works. A FUNGUS, more than 40 million years ago...something with no brain at all...discovers through chance that a certain chemical makes an ant do EXACTLY what it needs to reproduce.

I now question the activities of everybody around me. The fungus didn't make the ant WANT to do it. It just released a chemical that MADE THE ANT DO IT. That's fucked up. I see a murder defense in the works.

[Jakensama]

I for one welcome our zombie insect overlords.

[Uncle Shags]

I think that removing our dead from the food chain eliminates a lot of "mind control" parasite or fungus potential. If we didn't burn/bury our dead there could be a bug that induced reckless/suicidal/murderous behavior in humans, thereby increasing it's own success.

Or you could think of what animals/organisms benefit from certain human behaviors. Like dogs or cats. Sometimes I wonder who's actually running the show in my house...

A crazy sci-fi type idea I just had would be a bug that could only procreate through a mass genocide type event. For instance, a parasite growing in humans, that needs to be transmitted to the stomach of crows (or some other carrion eater) in order to breed. The best way for that to happen would large scale human death to the point where the build up of bodies outpaced the communities ability to dispose of them, allowing time for crows to feed on dead people. You never know, that might be the real reason behind Rwanda.

[Zouji]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749">http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... /1602/2749</a><!-- m -->

We already have plenty of people infected by at least one mind altering parasite.
You can now begin your paranoid ravings in earnest.



*edit*
Ohh here are some more. I wonder how many of you will go to the doctor and ask to know if there are parasites eating your brain?
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXVI4/brainworms.html">http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXVI4/brainworms.html</a><!-- m -->

[OrsunVZ]

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/c.../1602/2749
We already have plenty of people infected by at least one mind altering parasite.

This is exactly why I am a dog person. Cats are filthy. My cat hording neighbor isn't helping my love for cats either.

[Zouji]

If you read the article the author states that he owns cats and has been around them his whole life. He thought he would test positive for the parasite yet he didn't.

Also owning a cat(s) (I have 2) and being a crazy cat person are two different things. I was going to post an amusing image to clearly show the difference between a cat lady and a crazy cat lady but upon further observation they look like the same thing. One is just slightly more sane than the other.

Here is the reason I own cat(s) and not dog(s).