A Talk on Mind-Controlling Parasites
ByEd Yong
May 07, 2013
2 min readThe natural world is full of sinister, mind-controlling parasites that turn rats into cat-seeking vehicles, caterpillars into head-banging bodyguards, cockroaches into dogs on a leash, and shrimps into sociable flamingo-food.
I’ve been writing about these creatures for many years and in March, I got to speak about them at a great event called the Lost Lectures. Six speakers from different backgrounds gather at a secret (and very cold) venue, announced days beforehand, to give informal talks about things they love. We had 3-D printing, jelly-making, maps and more.
The talk has finally been posted online. Hope you enjoy it.
Ed Yong: ‘Reality Check – Parasites and Mind Control’ from The Lost Lectures on Vimeo.
More on parasites:
- Mind-Bending Parasite Permanently Quells Cat Fear in Mice
- Parasites Make Their Hosts Sociable So They Get Eaten
- Mind-controlling virus forces parasitic wasp to put all its eggs in one basket
- Liquefying virus uses one gene to make caterpillars climb
- Pocket science – ancient death-grip scars
- The wasp that walks cockroaches
- Parasitic wasp turns caterpillars into head-banging bodyguards
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