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| So you're into sci fi? But what about sci fact? Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction... Each month our very own Voyager Science Queen* will bring you interesting, quirky and downright bizarre tasty morsels from the world of science. And its all completely, totally, 100% true! October Sci-Facts |
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Zombie Insects and other oddities Due to the response to the zombie snail story from last month, this month’s page is now dedicated to invertebrates that have their behaviour modified by parasitic infestation; this process is also known as host manipulation. After all, how can an intelligent, curious mind not be drawn to possessed creepy crawlies. Let’s look at the strange cases of the grasshopper and the ant.
Suicidal Grasshoppers Parasites often modify their hosts’ behaviour as part of their breeding strategy. In France, people were often disturbed (and disgusted) to find grasshoppers had drowned in their pools. Researcher wondered why grasshoppers often seem to seek a watery grave. It was a parasite that was causing the suicidal tendencies in the grasshoppers and crickets. A hairworm, Spinochordodes tellinii, was responsible, by flooding the brain of the host with behaviour-modifying chemicals when it had reached sexual maturity. Once the grasshopper had entered the water, the hairworm would leave its host to find a mate. The worm was often three or four times as long as its host, taking up most of the space of its abdomen. The poor grasshopper was no longer infested, but it would be too late to save it from drowning. Scientists have wondered whether the strange behaviour in the parasite-infested animals was deliberately engineered, or a side effect of the infestation. David G. Biron, of the Laboratory of Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases at France's National Scientific Research Centre in Montpellier, suggests that the first scenario is more likely. The hairworm gains all the advantage in this host/parasite relationship. It is placed in the best environment for a successful reproductive strategy, while the grasshopper perishes. And no one wants to be scraping dead grasshoppers out of their pool filter.
The Pink Panther Song Now, I was only able to find one real reference for this article. All my internet searches lead back to original information supplied by The Museum of Jurassic Technology. I loathe using such unsupported data, but it is too interesting to pass up, and too relevant to this month’s topic. In the lush rain forests of Cameroon, there lives the stink ant, Megaloponera foetens. This creature usually lives amongst the undergrowth of the rainforest, foraging for food. Occasionally, one of the ants will breathe in the spores of fungi, genus Tomentella. Upon inhaling the spores and the infestation of the ant’s body by the fungus, the pattern of the individual ant’s behaviour will dramatically change. It has been brainwashed! The ant will no longer cling to the ground. Instead, it will climb a tree, striving to scuttle as far up the trunk as it can before it is exhausted. Then, it will sink its mandibles into the bark of the tree, and wait to die. The deceased ant remains impaled to the tree by its powerful mandibles. The fungus continues to grow within the ant’s body. After a couple of weeks, the fruiting body will form from the insect’s carcass. Situated so high in the forest canopy, there is a better chance for the released spores to catch a breeze and drift away to infect other ants. And I thought I had a problem with pollen. It looks like sinus inflammation may be the least of the ants’ worries.
Wriggle it, just a little bit…
The New Zealand hairy-handed crab, Hemigrapus crenulatus, is often infested with more than one larval form of host-manipulating worms, helminths. The worms compete for space and resources within the host, but they appear to cooperate to brainwash the crab. They want the crab to be eaten by their tertiary host, seabirds. The crab is originally infected in several ways. Sometimes it ingests the eggs directly from seabird faeces. Sometimes the larvae penetrate the shell at the soft joints. Once in the host crab, they nematodes affect the serotonin in the brain so that the crab goes through a radically behavioural change; instead of hiding from its predators, it remains out in the open. The poor crab. At least it dies happy...
Nikola Tesla I know, I know. I have mentioned Tesla in a previous Science Page. But that was years ago, and the man is much too interesting to ignore. Telsa was born in July, in 1856, in Croatia. There is some confusion to whether it was the ninth or the tenth. This kind of confusion seemed to dog Tesla for the rest of his life. His father was an Orthodox priest, his mother a highly intelligent woman who doted on her son. I have often wondered why Tesla isn’t considered the father of modern electronics. But, he was the original ‘mad’ scientist. He wouldn’t ‘market’ his inventions, so that other inventors would often gain the recognition for inventing something that Tesla was already using in his own laboratory. For example, he was using fluorescent lights to light his laboratory decades before they were ‘discovered’ again. He was also sensational press. He was an eccentric, and suffered from weird compulsions and a progressive germ phobia – similar to the phobia developed by Howard Hughes. He would often make outrageous claims in the media, about inventing death rays or methods of splitting the Earth. He claimed to be in communication with other planets. Here is a list of his major inventions, many which are claimed by others: As you can see, Tesla was a man with an instinct for finding new ways of using electricity. While inventing, he would keep all the plans and specifications in his head. He died on the seventh of January in 1943, in New York City. Within a few years of his death, he was largely forgotten as an inventor in his adopted country of America. There really isn’t the room here to go into all the details of this great man’s life, such as his interesting relationships with Edison and Mark Twain. I would recommend anyone to do further research.
Concept of the Month A helminth is a worm that is classified as a parasite. Common helminths are roundworms, pinworms (also known as threadworms), tapeworms, and flukes. They are usually internal parasites, rather than external parasites. They often infest more than one type of host during their life cycle.
Lynne’s Literary Comment Quotations seem to be all the rage on our forum. What is the attraction of a good quote? It distils the wisdom of a complex concept into simple, clever terms.
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| *The Voyager Science Queen is also known as Lynne Green So, who is this woman who attempts to entertain us with Science? Well, I really am a scientist. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Queensland, in Zoology. And, at the moment, I am working in a Pathology laboratory. I have always been intensely curious about every aspect of our universe, from the teeny tiny workings of the gene right up to the mind-bending forces that are twisting and knotting inside a blackhole. So, now I am sharing a brain stuffed full of trivia...and hopefully entertaining people at the same time. As well, I write Fantasy stories and novels. One day, I hope to have a book published, but don't hold your breath. Reading is my other major love, and my favourite authors are Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov, though I could list hundreds of others. If I had one wish, I ask for more time to write! Read previous Sci-Facts: You'll Be A Star! Looking for more scientific oddities? Have you checked out Dr Steven Juan's website? He is, quite literally, the wizard of odds! |
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