4 ms·
Reminiscent of the toxoplasmosis life cycle.
by CalRobert 2mo ago
Reminiscent of the toxoplasmosis life cycle.
- sethammons 2mo agoInstead of making mice seek out cats, this one encourages poor public health policies in people.
- CalRobert 2mo agoIf it results in more and fitter offspring it will be selected for.
- eqvinox 2mo agoSounds like a nice topic for a PhD for someone 100 or 1000 generations down the line...
- ElProlactin 2mo agoI don't have a parasite in my brain so take everything I say with a grain of salt but at this pace I'm skeptical there will be 100 more generations.
- eqvinox 2mo agoWell I didn't say it would be generations of humans ;-)
- hogwasher 2mo agotoxoplasmosis doesn't actually do that to mice. It makes them less scared, but iirc, not even so much that they don't flee. it's one of those studies that got blown up into a worldwide news story sensation even though the actual paper didn't say what headlines claimed it did. I don't know if it was ever proven replicable or not, either.
- tim-tday 2mo agoMaking prey less scared of the predator makes them significantly more likely to be eaten by that predator. The reality is even worse than “seeking out cats” because it means if it does this in humans, (which it appears to do) those among us who get infected will engage in all manner of risky, dangerous and destructive behaviors.