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Parasites That Can Control Insect Minds

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the welcome-yet-another-overlord dept.

Ant writes to tell us that NewScientist is running an article about an interesting parasite that apparently has the power to 'brainwash' its host. From the article: "The parasitic Nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. Somehow mature hairworms brainwash their hosts into behaving in way they never usually would - causing them to seek out and plunge into water."

3 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Over here in the UK.... by FyRE666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We call these things "politicians".

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    Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
  2. That is amazing. by hungrygrue · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That is just incredible, especially when you think about the fact that it is able to control multiple species. Wow. It would be very interesting to see if other species not as closely related would behave in the same way, various beetles, for instance.

  3. Re:Why the article? by jimktrains · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sometime the mechinsim is not the important part; just the discovery. What if Newton didn't publish gravity because he didn't understant the mechignism by which it works?

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    "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." - S. G. Colette