SMBC Comics Forum

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2331

Last frame.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson and who's the other guy?

Phil Plait (aka "The Bad Astronomer").

re: parasites

Radiolab did an entire episode on how parasites change behavior. . . awesome/creepy. . . http://www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/

Google EP276 and click "I'm Feeling Lucky" .. I think Zach accidentally told the plot of this story as a joke. Definitely accidental btw, I totally get that this is a coincidence, but it's bizarre how close they are.

An estimated 1/3 of the human population has such an infection.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... sma_gondii

It's quite similar to what was mentioned in the comic, except this is generally between mice and cats instead of fish and birds, and can infect humans as well.

Actually, there's a credible example for humans... that of the toxoplasmosis parasite, carried by a number of mammals, but primarily cats. We know that when it infects rats, it makes them much less wary of cats, even of their smell... so they're much more likely to get eaten.

We also know it can infect humans, usually without obvious symptoms. Now, a lot of humans are themselves pretty wary of cats... but then, there are "cat people", who seek them out at every opportunity. Not to mention the "crazy cat people", who hoard cats....

Oh my goodness - SUDDEN REALIZATION

The Weinersmith, K who I saw present on this topic at the Animal Behaviour Society 2011 Conference was Zach Weiner's wife?

Wasn't this the premise of a short story by (I think) Asimov?

Wrinkledlion X wrote:Wasn't this the premise of a short story by (I think) Asimov?

That Zach's wife presented at the Animal Behaviour Society 2011 Conference? Yes, I think I remember that one. Didn't it involve time travel to kill dinosaurs who would have died soon otherwise?

No, I'm pretty sure that's the Sound of Thunder. Never mind.

gavin wrote:Didn't it involve time travel to kill dinosaurs who would have died soon otherwise?

Save yourself mammal! We'll fend off the asteroid!

Yeah, definite similarities to "On a Blade of Grass." At least here it's a joke instead of the plot, but I have the same problem with it: how on earth would there be selection pressures that led to a parasite that reproduces in the stomach of an alien that it's never even been close to encountering?

(incidentally, my favorite parasites-make-people-do-normal-things story is "The Giving Plague" by David Brin)

Not familiar with that one, but after searching for a while, I found the one I was thinking of: "Does a Bee Care?" by Asimov

So not parasitism exactly, but a similar overall concept.

Actually, humans are infested by a species of tremadode themselves. Search for Schistosoma mansoni. But it parasites mainly the liver, not the brain.

Sounds like my good friend captain higgins, the parasitic flatworm