Mental Floss has a nice two-post line-up of the weirdest mind-controlling parasites that we know of (1, 2). Some will no doubt be familiar to readers of the Loom, but others may be disturbingly new.
Update: Also check out Discover’s own gallery of parasitic horrors.
Originally published May 15, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
Discover, May 15, 2009
Four decades ago, an MIT neuroscientist named Jerry Lettvin had a sudden inspiration about how our brains make sense of the world. What if each of us had a special set of neurons in our head whose only job was to recognize a particular person, place, or thing? It was a strange idea, but given what Lettvin knew about the brain, it was plausible. To describe his idea to his students, he made up a story [pdf].
The story was about Alexander Portnoy, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s novel Portnoy’s Complaint, which had just been published. The novel is a long monologue delivered by Portnoy as he lies on the couch of his psychoanalyst.
Continue reading “Can a Single Neuron Tell Halle Berry From Grandma Esther?”
To explain the origin of life, scientists seek to explain the origin of its components. The three most important of these are RNA, DNA, and proteins.
Should I take it as a compliment that somebody took the time to hack my online archive of articles? It’s still pretty irritating. Whatever the twisted motivations of the hacker, my web guardians and I are now figuring out how to repair the mess. My apologies to anyone seeking an article.
Originally published May 13, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
There’s a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about biohacking: people experimenting with genetically engineered microbes and viruses at home. It tries to inject anxiety into your brain right from the start, with a headline, “In Attics and Closets, ‘Biohackers’ Discover Their Inner Frankenstein–Using Mail-Order DNA and Iguana Heaters, Hobbyists Brew New Life Forms; Is It Risky?”
Continue reading “The Worry of Biohacking: Closet Frankensteins or Kafkaesque Government?”