Fish Poison Makes Hot Feel Cold and Vice Versa

SoyChemist writes "Ciguatoxin causes bizarre neurological symptoms including temperature reversal, a burning sensation, and an imaginary feeling of loose teeth. It is produced by algae and accumulates in the fatty flesh of tropical fish. While traveling to the tropics, a man from England ate some bad seafood that contained the unusual poison. His story, and the tale of some unfortunate sailors of an earlier age who suffered the same affliction, appeared in the current issue of Practical Neurology and was summarized on the Wired Science Blog. Both the Wired blog and the peer-reviewed journal neglected to mention that the potent neurotoxin has been made from scratch by organic chemists."

Comments

Nice curiosity, but what are the applications?

[Opportunist]

It would be great if we found a way to selectively "switch" some receptors. Like, when people suffer from burns to ease their pain. Or maybe in a deodorant that tells your skin it's freezing so you don't sweat in the first place.

The former I'm not too sure about (whether it works or is even a good idea), the latter sounds silly to me, so what could we make out of that? I'm usually not someone asking for applications for a discovery to be "useful", but this is intriguing. Anyone got an idea what to do with that?

Loose teeth? Englishman?

[dissolved]

Given the state of our NHS and the mythical availability of dental treatment, I wouldn't put the blame for any feeling of loose teeth down to poison alone...

Re:Umm...Psychoactive drugs?

[Bucc5062]

This isn't "News for Nerds", this is news for the guy who sells you pot.

Why is the assumption always that /. is only for computer nerds. I've met a few scientists in other fields in my time and they seem just as "nerdy" as my fellow programmers. Some may even stay in the basement of their Mom's house chopping up body parts or mixing toxic chemicals together.

Either you are new to /. and miss the point that even politics, toxins, and robots can effect "nerds/geeks", you have a secret phobia against fish, or miss the point of just how cool this article is to the community at large.

Personally, I have enjoyed the odd view some of my fellow /.'ers have posted regarding this article. I also appreciate the news so that when I travel to the Pacific someday, I will take care eating fish.

Enjoy the moment, we have so few.