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Scientists Create Zombie Cockroaches
Reservoir Hill writes "Zombie insects might sound like a B-movie plot device (quicktime video) but to the emerald cockroach wasp (Ampulex compressa), they're a tried and tested way to provide food for their hungry larvae. The wasp relies on cockroaches for its grisly life cycle but unlike many venomous predators, which paralyze their victims before eating them, the wasp's sting leaves the cockroach able to walk, but unable to initiate its own movement. Researchers have discovered that the wasps sting the cockroaches once to subdue them, then administer another, more precise sting right into their victim's brain. The venom works to block a neurotransmitter called octopamine with a similar action to dopamine, which is involved in preparations to execute complex behaviors such as walking. Then the wasp grabs the cockroach's antenna and leads it back to the nest 'like a dog on a leash', says one researcher. The team found that they could restore spontaneous walking behavior in stung cockroaches by giving them a compound that reactivates octopamine receptors in the insects' central nervous system. Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound that blocks the receptors producing a similar effect to that of the venom."
The title should read: Emerald Cockroach Wasps Create Zombie Cockroaches, Scientists Notice
What would this mean for humans? Is it possible to do this to us? If so, this could be the new date rape drug. Oh yeah, and I suppose it needs to be done: I, for one, welcome our new zombie cockroach overlords.
the executive branch of our government for some reason...
Yup, mod me down for that one, I deserve it.
There is simply too much glass..
In other news, large hordes of nerds are being arrested all over the planet while injecting nubile females with what appears to be insect venom. Natalie Portman in intensive care after a severe allergic reaction.
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Well, I for one am scared shitless of our new overlords.
Nicely crafted, but couldn't you have worked "sheeple" in there somewhere?
... you wake up.
But do they eat brains? I don't think so. So, technically they're not zombies.
Ford Prefect, talking to Arthur Dent about an immense robot that came from a flying saucer (destroying a huge area including Harrods), and said "Take me to your Lizard.":
..."
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and
coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced
down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so
straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders
are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the
people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse,
"why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got
the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government
they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they
want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong
lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
Pavlov. Does this name ring a bell?
I read the title as "Scientologists create zombie cockroaches" and actually caught myself thinking, "Yeah, they've been working up to this for a while now."
Surely this opens up a whole new area of cockroach racing with wasp jockeys?