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Zombie Plants Help To Spread Bacterial Pathogen
bmahersciwriter writes: "We've all heard stories about how parasites can 'zombify' organisms, getting them to mindlessly protect a brood or infect their peers. Now UK researchers have figured out how one bacterial pathogen co-opts the behavior of a plant, causing it to attract sap-sucking insects that help the bacteria spread to other plants. From the story in Nature News: 'The plant appears alive, but it's only there for the good of the pathogen,' says plant pathologist Saskia Hogenhout from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. 'In an evolutionary sense, the plant is dead and will not produce offspring.' 'Many might balk at the concept of a zombie plant because the idea of plants behaving is strange,' says David Hughes, a parasitologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. 'But they do, and since they do, why wouldn't parasites have evolved to take over their behavior, as they do for ants and crickets?'"
oh, yeah. pet rocks. sorry.
The cold/flu causes us to produce additional muccus/sneeze/cough, altering our behavior which increases transmission rates. This doesn't mean we are zombies. I think it's a very interesting find, but a little ridiculous to involve the term zombie.
The cold/flu causes us to produce additional muccus/sneeze/cough, altering our behavior which increases transmission rates. This doesn't mean we are zombies. I think it's a very interesting find, but a little ridiculous to involve the term zombie.
I'll remind you of that when the zombie plant is eating your brains. "Don't worry, this is natural for the plants to be trying to eat you. Nothing to do with zombies."
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
Or Plants vs Zombies?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I have it on good word from The Umbrella Corporation... Ahem... Monsanto, that there is nothing to worry about. This bacteria could in no way affect their GMO products. Nor did they have any involvement in it's creation. The reports of carnivorous plants attacking independent farmers and their families are simply not true. Their fields and homes were torched, ahem, sterilized simply as a safety precaution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffid
This is probably why the CDC released the zombie preparedness plan.
Next time your in Culver City check out the megolaponera foetens exhibit at The Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Still seems a stretch to call it a "zombie" though. Wouldn't the same rationale mean that mules are also undead? Not zombies since there's no infection involved, but something.
Aaah!!! Beware the undead pack animals! They'll eat your carrots and refuse to carry your burdens unless they feel like it!
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
One of the key parts of the definition of life has been removed - the ability to reproduce.
So anyone who's had a vasectomy or hysterectomy is by your definition a zombie? No, I think not. This is just a stupid, publicity-seeking use of the word zombie and you should not be trying to defend it.
That's how long we have until doomsday.
Sensible. After getting thousands and thousands of zombies taken out by those damn plants, the sensible thing to do would be to subvert them from the inside.
Yes, now there are truly zombies on your lawn.
"The plant appears alive, but it's only there for the good of the pathogen."
The citizen appears alive, but it's only there for the good of the government.
FTFY.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Or ants and cricket, or plants, or politicians...
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sterility does not equal "dead"
this sort of crap is why we can't have nice science.